“The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) continues to work to confirm the identities of the four victims who were located on Wednesday,” a statement released
Almost a week after a family of four — including a teenager and an infant — were found frozen to death in Emerson, Manitoba (Canada) the Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they have not yet established the identity of the deceased thought to be Indian. Several news reports had identified a family of four, originally from Gujarat thought to those who had died.
“The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) continues to work to confirm the identities of the four victims who were located on Wednesday,” a statement released on January 24 said. The Hindu had approached the Canadian police on Wednesday asking for a confirmation of the identity and was directed to this statement.
“We are also in regular contact with Indian consular officials who have arrived in Manitoba. Once the identities have been confirmed, our priority will be to formally notify the next of kin,” they said.
“We are aware that some media outlets are publishing the possible identities of the four victims. As a law enforcement organization, we will not be in a position to confirm these names until we have 100% certainty of their identities and next of kin notification is completed,” the statement said.
U.S. places undocumented Indians in removal proceedings
Seven Indians were located by U.S. authorities just within the countries borders last Wednesday.
“All migrants who illegally entered the United States were administratively processed for removal and/or placed into removal proceedings as per the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Kris Grogan, a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) public affairs officer told The Hindu over email on Wednesday.
In a press statement last week, CBP had said all seven were undocumented migrants — suggesting that all of them are now in various stages of removal proceedings, as per the above statement.
The Hindu reached out to officers at the Indian Embassy in Washington and the Indian Consulate in Chicago on Tuesday for information on the case, including regarding detentions, but did not hear back from them.