Risking Life for a New Life

"The investigation into the death of the four individuals in Canada is ongoing along with an investigation into a larger human smuggling operation."

Affidavit, John Stanley, special agent, U.S.Homeland Security

"[The agency] deeply regrets the tragic loss of life."

"Whatever the circumstances, no one should ever have to choose such a perilous journey."

Rema Jamous Imseis, Canada representative, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

 

"They believe that that's the only country [the United States] that has a lot of opportunities." 

"And there's [an] envy factor that [makes them think], 'That person can go to … that particular country. Why not me?' So they would land here and then they try to, you know, go back to or travel to [the] U.S. and migrate there, right? That's their motivation." 

 "But they don't realize the fact that Canada has equal opportunities, right? And they can make their life here, too."    

"They may not have realized the fact that walking so long a distance is not practically feasible."

Akhil Shah, president, Friends of Gujarat, Brampton, Ontario

Four people, one an infant, were found dead in a Manitoba field near the Canada-U.S. border, on Wednesday. A U.S. Homeland Security agent believes they may have been victims of a wider human smuggling operation. (Submitted by RCMP)

 

Canada signed an agreement in 2004 with the United States that asylum seekers who attempt entry to Canada from the United States at an official border crossing are sent back to the U.S. and vice versa, each being recognized as a safe country to seek asylum in; those declaring themselves refugees are meant to remain in the first country accessed. 

 

On the other hand, those deliberately bypassing official border crossings to declare themselves refugees when they're apprehended by Canadian law agents like the RCMP are escorted into Canada and invited to file a refugee claim, and to remain in Canada while their claim is being processed -- to be either accepted or denied on the basis of assessed claim merit. 

Canada was intercepting thousands of people from Africa and Haiti and the Middle East during a period of several years when haven-seeking refugee claimants -- but mostly migrants -- were passing from the United States in to Canada, at a time when the U.S. was attempting to come to grips with the millions of illegals living underground in America.

Recently, even while the U.S. is attempting to cope with tens of thousands mostly Central American migrants and haven seekers on their southern border with Mexico, a small number of aspirants to enter the U.S. from Canada has drawn attention from U.S. border agents and Homeland Security. What has spotlighted this new border incursion event is the discovery of four members of a family from India found frozen to death just over the border from northern Manitoba attempting to enter the U.S.

At this time of year, freezing temperatures and frequent blizzards become threats to human life. The family, comprised of two adults, a teenager and a baby, became disoriented, had no idea where they were or where they were heading, and succumbed to the severe cold, dying on an isolated patch of snow-covered ground in a sparsely populated area. They had walked for hours, were exhausted and died of exposure.

They were headed for Minnesota with the expectation they would meet at an assigned destination where they would be picked up and driven to an appointed place. American investigators have arrested and charged 47-year-old Steve Shand of Florida with human smuggling. He was driving a 15-passenger rental van from the airport in Minneapolis. At the time that agents stopped the van five other Indian nationals were nearby having "walked across the border expecting to be picked up by someone on the U.S. side", after having walked for 11 hours.

Human smuggling experts say the initial investigation and arrest connected to a family being found frozen to death near the U.S. border points to a “sophisticated operation.”  John Woods/The Canadian Press