Just like the thriving “illegal immigration to US” network which is far from hitting the end of the road, it seems there will never be closure for the bereaved Manekpura-Dabhla family. Last Thursday, the Canadian Police announced end of search operations. The force was looking for missing bodies of illegal immigrants after the drowning tragedy in St Lawrence River at the Quebec-New York border. Eight bodies were recovered on March 30 by the Canadian Coast Guard, while the hunt was on to recover another four.
The recovered bodies were identified as Pravin Chaudhary (50) and his two children Vidhi (24) and Mitkumar (20) from Manekpura-Dabhla village of Vijapur taluka in Mehsana. However, Pravin’s wife Diksha (45) who was travelling with them, has been missing since the incident. There was reportedly another family from North Gujarat – a couple, both in their 30s, and their four-year-old child – who remain missing.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Akwesasne Mohawk Police (AMPS) stated that the investigation pertaining to the eight deceased is still in early stages.
“The Akwesasne Mohawk Police (AMPS) believe that they have exhausted their efforts on the water. Unless they receive actionable intelligence, the AMPS Snowmobile All-Terrain Vessel Enforcement (SAVE) Team will resume normal patrol operations effective today (April 6) and suspend the organized search,” it said.
From March 30 to April 5, AMPS and local law enforcement agencies conducted a thorough water search of the Snye Channel and local waterways covering around eight kilometres of waterway and shoreline.
It is now learnt that the Chaudhary family and another Gujarati family arrived in Canada on February 3 on valid tourist visas. After a two-month stay in Canada, the US crossover was attempted on a boat. Among the eight bodies recovered, while three were identified being of the Chaudhury family from Mehsana, another three were reportedly of a Romanian family, a couple and their toddler.
These deaths are similar to the tragic end of a family of four from Dingucha village in January 2022. The family froze to death in Canada while attempting to sneak into the US in sub-zero temperatures. The victims were Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishali Patel, (37), their 17-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.
In another incident in December 2022, a resident from Gandhinagar’s Kalol, Brijkumar Yadav, died while scaling a wall near Tijuana (Mexico) in his attempt to illegally cross over into the US. While his wife, Pooja Yadav, fell on US side, Brijkumar fell from a height of five metres on the Mexican side along with their son. The son, according to the local reports, was later united with his mother.
Notably, in a bid to jointly tackle the network of illegal immigration into the US, mostly via Canada, two officers of the Royal Mounted Canadian Police have been in Ahmedabad since February to collaborate on nodal issues of concern.
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