Boat capsize: Eight people, including two children, drowned while trying to enter US from Canada illegally. Among the dead were members of an Indian family who were trying to enter the US from Canada by boat across the St. Lawrence River. Police in Canada recovered the bodies of eight people.
On Friday police recovered two bodies from the river. Six bodies were recovered earlier on Thursday. Of the eight who drowned, stwo were children, police in the Mohawk Territory of Akwesasne said. The victims were of Romanian and Indian descent.
Akwesasne Mohawk Police Chief Shawn Dulude said authorities were still looking for 30-year-old Casey Oakes, who was last seen Wednesday operating a boat that was found next to the bodies.
Eight bodies recovered
“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,” Dulude said. He said he didn’t know if Oakes is alive or not.
Oakes was last seen Wednesday around 9.30 pm boarding a small boat departing from the east end of Cornwall Island, located in the St. Lawrence River and on the Ontario side of the Mohawk territory.
The territory is a transit point for human trafficking and contraband because of its location. Akwesasne police had reported in February an increase in human smuggling into the Mohawk territory.
Weather conditions in the area were rough Wednesday night, said Lee-Ann O’Brien, deputy chief of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service.
Heartbreaking situation
“This is a heartbreaking situation, particularly given the young child that was among them,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “We need to understand properly what happened, how it happened and do whatever we can to minimize the chances of this ever happening again.”
Akwesasne police say about 80 people have been trying to cross illegally into Canada or into the United States through the Mohawk territory since January. Most of them are of Indian or Romanian descent. Akwesasne straddles the Canada-United States border, and has territory in Quebec, Ontario and New York state.
In April 2022, six Indian nationals were rescued from a sinking boat in the St. Regis River, which runs through Akwesasne Mohawk Territory.
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