On Saturday, the Indian government said it was in contact with US and Canadian officials to learn more about the tragedy in which four Indians perished from exposure to the cold, and that it had requested consular access for seven additional Indian nationals imprisoned by the US for human trafficking.
According to official sources, on January 19, US officials near the US-Canada border in Minnesota came across a group of people who appeared to be without valid documentation. According to them, Canadian officials conducted a search based on information provided from them and discovered four dead in Manitoba province on the Canadian side.
An official stated, “These four victims (a man, a woman, a teenage boy, and an infant) appeared to have perished due to the cold.”
“Indian nationals appear to be among the people without valid documentation on the US side, as well as the dead people on the Canadian side.” Efforts are underway, however, to locate them… “The victims’ post-mortem will most likely be performed on January 24,” he stated. Official sources revealed that US officials had apprehended seven persons without legal documentation, as well as one US citizen, for allegedly transporting people from Canada to the United States.
A team from the Indian consulate in Chicago has also been dispatched to Minneapolis to coordinate and provide consular support. “They’ve requested consular access to the detainees.” “The consulate and the embassy in Washington, DC, are in contact with the US Department of Justice, as well as US customs and border police,” a source added.
