Akwesasne: Two Indians were among the eight people who drowned in the St Lawrence River while attempting to cross into the US from Canada illegally. The authorities recovered six bodies on Thursday and suspect that the tragedy occurred on Wednesday night.
The Chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service confirmed that they are searching for a missing 30-year-old man, Casey Oakes, who is a person of interest in the case, as his boat was found near the area where the victims were recovered. This is the latest tragedy involving Indians seeking better prospects abroad.
At least two children with Canadian passports were among the victims, said police, who are waiting on the results of a post-mortem and toxicology tests from Montreal to determine the cause of death.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed last week to stop asylum seekers coming to Canada through unofficial border crossings, a move critics said could mean refugees and migrants will take more risks when crossing.
But Akwesasne police said the agreement that closed all unofficial border entries, including Roxham Road in Quebec, should not have factored here because the families were seeking to go to the U.S., not to Canada.
"Right now what I can tell you is this has nothing to do with that closure," O'Brien said.
Last year an Indian family of four froze to death in Canada's province of Manitoba as they were trying to cross into the U.S.
The Akwesasne reserve straddles both sides of the St. Lawrence River, with land in Ontario and Quebec on the Canadian side, and New York. To fight the smuggling of people and goods, local police monitor the river full-time with funds from Quebec.
"We're reeling from this tragedy," Akwesasne Chief Abram Benedict told reporters. "It does bring to light the challenges of immigration for Canada and the United States."
More people have been using Akwesasne territory to try to enter the U.S. in secret, with 80 interceptions recorded since the beginning of the year, and the majority have been Indians or Romanians, said Dulude.
On Wednesday night, when the families likely sought to cross the river, the weather was poor.
"It was very windy," O'Brien said, and it was raining and sleeting. "It was not a good time to be out in the water."
Trudeau called the deaths "heartbreaking."
"We need to understand properly what happened, how this happened and do whatever we can to ensure that we're minimizing the chances of it happening again," he told reporters in Moncton, New Brunswick.
(With inputs from PTI & Reuters)
