The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service said the bodies were found about 5pm (21 GMT) on Thursday in a marshy area of the St Lawrence River in Tsi Snaihne, Akwesasne, Quebec.Police in Canada have said they recovered the bodies of two more migrants who drowned in the St Lawrence river while attempting to enter the US from Canada illegally, taking the death toll to eight, including members of an Indian family.
The bodies were found on Friday in a marsh on the riverbank near Akwesasne, a community which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state. One other person is still missing.
Police say the deceased — believed to be two families of Indian and Romanian descent — were trying to cross into the United States from Canada. Among them were two children under the age of three, both Canadian citizens.
"Unfortunately, these situations happen. It's not something new,” Akwesasne Mohawk Police chief Shawn Dulude said of people trying to cross.
“We've seen it happen in the past, and hopefully as we move forward … it's something we can one day eliminate,” the officer was quoted as saying by the Montreal Gazette newspaper.
Akwesasne police are working with Immigration Canada to assist with identifying the victims and notifying the next of kin. They are also increasing surveillance on the river, it said.
Authorities located the first body in the marsh around 5 pm on Thursday during an aerial search conducted at the request of the Canadian Coast Guard.
Throughout the day on Friday, search crews could be seen wading through a marshy area near the local marina with the help of a light airboat. A helicopter also scanned the river.
The last two bodies, of a second infant and another woman, were retrieved from the water during the day.
Police recovered two more bodies from the river on Friday, after discovering six bodies and an overturned boat during a missing person search on Thursday afternoon, CBC News reported.
They are believed to have been an Indian family and a Romanian family who were attempting to cross into the US, police said, adding that an Akwesasne resident remains missing.
According to police, there has seen an uptick in human smuggling into the US. Ryan Brissette, a public affairs officer with US Customs and Border Patrol, says the agency had seen a "massive uptick in encounters and apprehensions" at the border.
The agency saw more than eight times as many people try to cross from Canada into the US in 2022 compared to previous years, he said. Many of them — more than 64,000 — came through Quebec or Ontario into New York.
"Comparing this area in the past, this is a significant number," Brissette said.
"There's a lot of different reasons as to why this is happening, why folks are coming all of a sudden through the northern border. I think a lot of them think it's easier, an easy opportunity and they just don't know the danger that it poses, especially in the winter months," the officer said.
Akwesasne police say there have been 48 incidents of people trying to cross illegally into Canada or into the United States through the Mohawk territory since January, and most of them have been of Indian or Romanian descent.
In January 2022, the bodies of four Indians, including a baby, were found frozen in Manitoba near the Canada-US border. In April 2022, six Indian nationals were rescued from a sinking boat in the St Regis river, which runs through Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.
In April 2022, six Indian nationals were rescued from a sinking boat in the St Regis river, which runs through Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.
At a news conference on Friday, deputy police chief Lee-Ann O’Brien the dead were two families — one of Romanian descent with Canadian passports, the other Indian. At least one child under the age of three was among the dead, she said.
An infant also believed to be “associated with the Romanian family” was also missing, they said.
“All are believed to have been attempting illegal entry into the US from Canada,” O’Brien added.
She said the bodies were found near a capsized boat belonging to a missing man from the Akwesasne Mohawk community. Authorities were awaiting the results of post-mortem and toxicology tests to determine the cause of death.
Last month, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police reported a recent increase in undocumented entries through their lands and waterways. The statement said some refugees required hospitalisation.
In January the police force noted people involved in human smuggling had attempted to use shorelines along the Saint Lawrence River in the area.
‘Put human lives at risk’
The latest incident comes after US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week announced a plan to close a loophole in an immigration agreement that allowed asylum seekers to cross into Canada at unofficial points along the border to seek protection.
Advocates have said the updated Safe Third Country Agreement policy — which closed heavily trafficked unofficial crossings like Roxham Road, a link between New York state and Quebec — would increase the chance of people taking more dangerous routes.
Migrant justice advocates laid the blame for the most recent deaths on policy makers.
““The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) and other immigration laws are meant to deter migration from the global south by making border crossing deadly,” Nazila Bettache, a member of the Caring for Social Justice Collective, said in a statement.
“Let’s be clear, these deaths were predictable and predicted – and in that sense they are intentional.”
Samira Jasmin, spokesperson for the Solidarity Across Borders advocacy group, added that “these immigration policies put human lives at risk! We cross borders for a better world and instead face death”.
Local authorities, however, said it was unlikely the closure played a role in the most recent deaths, as the families were seeking to go to the US, not come to Canada.
“Right now what I can tell you is this has nothing to do with that closure,” O’Brien said. “These people were believed to be gaining entry into the US. It’s completely opposite.
Roxham Road is about 105km (66 miles) east of Akwesasne.
