Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday it is doing all it can to stop people smuggling across the US border after a family of four died in a “mind-blowing” tragedy.
US officials have charged an American man with human trafficking after four — a man, woman, child and teenager — were found dead in the province of Manitoba, a few yards north of the border with Minnesota.
The four have been provisionally identified as a family from India, part of a larger group trying to enter the United States by walking across snow-covered fields in a remote area.
Trudeau told a news conference, “It was an absolutely mind-blowing story. Watching a family die like this, victims of human trafficking… and people taking advantage of their desire to make a better life.” It’s so sad to see.”
“That is why we are doing everything we can to discourage people from crossing the border irregularly or illegally. We know there are great risks in doing so,” he continued.
Canada, Trudeau said, was working closely with the United States to stop smuggling and help people “take unacceptable risks.”
Local officials said the incident was unusual because people in the past had tried to get into Canada from the United States and not the other way around.
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.
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