PM Trudeau working with US to stop human smuggling

Toronto: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that his government was doing all it can and working “very closely” with the US to stop human smuggling, a day after a family of four Indians, including a baby, died from exposure to extreme cold weather on the Canadian side of the border with America. Terming the incident as a “mind blowing” tragedy, Trudeau on Friday said that the Canadian government is doing all it can to stop people-smuggling across the US border.

“It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. 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. “This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner. We know there are great risks in doing so,” he said.

The prime minister said that Canada was working very closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people “taking unacceptable risks”. According to Canadian officials, the incident was unusual as illegal migrants generally try to cross into Canada from America, rather than the other way round. Border crossings into Canada on foot increased in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States.

On Thursday, bodies of four people — two adults, a teen and an infant — were found on the Canadian side of the US/Canada border near the Emerson locality in south central. The family, believed to be Gujaratis, died from the exposure to extreme cold weather. Confirming the nationality of the deceased, India’s High Commissioner to Canada Ajay Bisaria described the incident as a grave tragedy.

“This is a grave tragedy. An Indian consular team is travelling today from @IndiainToronto to Manitoba to coordinate and help. We will work with Canadian authorities to investigate these disturbing events,” Bisaria tweeted. —PTI