Four Indians from Gujarat village drown on US-Canada border

The four Indians were among eight people who died while trying to cross the Canada-US border illegally

Four members of an Indian family, who died while attempting to cross the St. Lawrence River by boat from Canada to the US came from a village in the Mehsana district of Gujarat, according to media reports.

Canadian police found eight dead bodies, two of whom of children, in the St. Lawrence River in the Akwesasne region of the Canadian province of Quebec, which serves as the boundary between the two countries, on Thursday.

Read: Indian family of four found frozen to death near US-Canada border (January 22, 2022)

Praveen Chaudhary, 50, his wife Diksha Chaudhary, 45, and their children, Vidhi Chaudhary, 23, and Mit Chaudhary, 20 — had gone on a trip to Canada two months ago, the Indian Express reported citing Mehsana Superintendent of Police Achal Tyagi.

“After the news and photos of family members surfaced on social media, the family of the four victims from Manekpur village of Mehsana district identified them,” he was quoted as saying.

“We talked to the family on Sunday morning. We have not yet got any intimation from the Canadian authorities,” Tyagi said. “The family of the victims told us that they had been in touch with them, and would talk over the phone every 2-3 days. It was just for the last week they were not in contact with the victims. And then they heard the news about their deaths.”

Another Indian family of four, including an infant, from Dingucha village in Kalol taluka of Gandhinagar district in Gujarat, died in a similar manner in January 2022.

Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishali Patel, 37, their 17-year-old daughter and their four-year-old son froze to death while allegedly attempting to cross over illegally from Canada into the US.

The Gujarat Police had arrested two agents for human trafficking in February 2023. A case was registered against seven persons, one from Ahmedabad and others from Gandhinagar.

Read: Indian family that froze to death forced to walk in –31F (January 16, 2023)

The first victim in the latest tragedy, according to the Canadian police, was discovered in a marsh near Tsi Snaihne in Akwesasne, a Mohawk territory just across the US-Canada border, at approximately 17:00 local time .

Six bodies were found by police on Thursday, and they think the tragedy might have happened on Wednesday night. The most recent two dead bodies were found in the water by a police helicopter.

“A total of eight bodies have now been recovered from the waters. All are believed to have been attempting illegal entry into the United States from Canada.”

Lee-Ann O’Brien, deputy chief of Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service, told the BBC that the bodies are believed to be from two families, one of Romanian descent and one of Indian descent.

The authorities discovered the bodies while searching for another missing person, which also started on Thursday.

O’Brien said at the videocast news conference that the AMPS was working with immigration and Homeland Security officials to confirm the identities of the dead and inform their relatives.

A boat that was found near the bodies belonged to a Native Canadian, Casey Oakes, who is also missing, she said.