The Indian family of four, which froze to death at the United States-Canada border, is reportedly from a village in Gujarat, Dingucha village of Kalol Tehsil in Gandhinagar district.
According to The Indian Express, police showed up at the village on Saturday, January 22, and contacted a man whose family members had recently travelled to Canada and who are now missing.
“Police and relatives said the descriptions of the missing members of the family from Dingucha — a 39-year-old man, his 37-year-old wife, and their 17-year-old daughter and four-year-old son — match with those of the four individuals who were found frozen to death in the Canadian province of Manitoba on Wednesday,” reported the Indian Express.
While, a team of Indian diplomats from both the US and Canada are now in the border area between the two countries where an Indian family of four, including an infant, had frozen to death while trying to cross the border.
According to the sources, further efforts are underway to identify them and confirm their nationalities. The post-mortem of the deceased is likely to be done on January 24.
Ajay Bisaria, India’s High Commissioner to Canada, said an Indian consular team from Toronto is in Manitoba to work with the Canadian authorities to investigate “these disturbing events”.
“Canadians are shocked by the tragedy”, said Canada’s High Commissioner-designate to India Cameron MacKay, calling for bringing human smugglers to justice.
So far, the US authorities have detained seven people without proper documentation and one US citizen for allegedly being involved in human smuggling activity.
However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his government is doing all it can and working “very closely” with the US to stop human smuggling.
“It’s so tragic to see a family die like that, victims of human traffickers…and of people who took advantage of their desire to build a better life,” Trudeau told a news conference on Friday.
However, India’s Consulate in Chicago has sent a team to Minneapolis, seeking consular access to the seven detained persons of apparent Indian descent. According to reports, the Indian missions in the US are also in touch with US Justice Department and the Border Police.
On January 19, when they had gotten information, the US authorities in Minnesota State, near the border with Canada, had come across a group of people with no proper documentation. Following this, Canadian authorities searched as per the information about some persons left behind. Later, they found four bodies on their side of the border, including a man, a woman, a teenage boy and an infant.
The sources said that the people without proper documentation on the US side and the dead people on the Canadian side appear to be Indian nationals.
