Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS / Getty Images
For: EFE Updated 27 Jan 2022, 17: 18 pm EST
The four people who froze to death last week while trying to enter the United States irregularly from Canada have been identified this Thursday as members of a family from India, including two children from 11 and 3 years.
The four victims were identified by the Indian embassy in Canada, which said that the deceased are Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, a male of 30 years old, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, a woman of 37 years old, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, a girl of 11 years old, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, a 3-year-old boy.
In addition, other two people were seriously injured by frostbite.
#World: Immigration authorities investigating the death of four Indian migrants, including a baby, found on the US-Canada border and reportedly abandoned by smugglers in the middle of a snowstorm.https://t.co/2VUnJ3dmix
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Their bodies were located last week by the Canadian Mounted Police, at a few meters from the border with the United States and about 04 kilometers from the Canadian town of Emerson, in the province of Manitoba.
The Indian embassy in Canada said in a statement that the autopsies of the bodies indicate that they died as a result of low temperatures.
The night of 19 of January, in the As the four tried to reach the United States, the area was affected by a snowstorm and temperatures were around -27 ºC.
After the discovery of the bodies, the Police in the United States arrested a man, Steve Shand, on charges of human trafficking. The US authorities suspect that Shand is part of a human trafficking network that works with Indian immigrants.
The four deceased were part of a larger group of people. One of the survivors of the trip reported to the US authorities that he paid a large sum of money to obtain a false student visa in Canada to then irregularly cross the border with the United States.
The Mounted Police of Canada said today that it has launched an investigation to determine how the four members of the Patel family came to the country.
Superintendent Rob Hill, director of criminal operations of the RCMP in Manitoba, pointed out during a press conference that the family came to Toronto from India in the past 11 from January.