Indian police have detained six people in a crackdown on illegal immigration after four Indians were found dead frozen near the United States-Canada border last week, officials said Thursday.
Hundreds of Indians, mostly from the western states of Punjab and Gujarat, try to cross the US-Canada border every year as they brave harsh weather conditions in search of a better life and jobs in the West.
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Gujarat police said they had identified the four, belonging to a single family, after law enforcement agencies at the border provided photos of passports and other belongings.
“We are now trying to apprehend the human traffickers who managed to send this family and others abroad through illegal channels,” said police officer AK Jhala in the state capital Gandhinagar.
The six detained by the police ran a travel and tourism company in the state, he added.
U.S. authorities have charged an American man with human trafficking after the four – a man, woman, baby and teenager – were found dead in the Canadian province of Manitoba, a few meters north of the Minnesota border.
They were among four families from the same village who traveled to the border this month.
Officials said they were separated from the group of 18 people and likely trapped in a blizzard, which led to a tragedy described by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “surprising”.
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The situation only came to light when the group was intercepted by authorities and it was found that one of them was carrying a backpack with baby supplies, although there was no baby among them.
“The link between human trafficking is deep, and it often involves local politicians as well,” Jhala said, adding that people are even selling their land and homes to fund efforts to get to the United States or Canada.
A State Department official in the Indian capital, New Delhi, said authorities were coordinating with border officials in the United States and Canada to investigate the illegal immigration case.
(Reported by Rupam Jain; Edited by Clarence Fernandez)
Reference-globalnews.ca