Bodies of 8 feared dead crossing into US found in New York

The bodies of eight people believed to have died trying to cross from Canada into the United States have been found in the past two days, including two children, authorities said on Friday.

Six people, described as members of two families of Romanian and Indian descent, were found on Thursday in a marshy area of the St Lawrence River, which is part of the Canada-US border. On Friday, the bodies of two more migrants were found, bringing the death toll to eight, according to police in Mohawk territory of Akwesne.

Shawn Dulude, the Mohawk police chief, said authorities were still looking for a man, identified as Casey Oakes, 30, who was last seen on Wednesday operating a boat that was found next to the bodies.

A child found on Friday was a Canadian citizen and a member of the Romanian family, Dulude said. The body of an adult woman believed to be an Indian national was recovered.

A total of eight bodies have been recovered from the waters. Dulude said all were believed to have been attempting illegal entry into the United States from Canada.

The territory is known for being a transit point for the trafficking of humans and contraband because of its location. In February, police in Akwesne reported an increase in human smuggling into Mohawk territory.

Our community has been exploited by this," said Abram Benedict, grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Akwesne. This is not the first time that a tragedy has happened in our community. We had other losses. Weather conditions in the area were rough on Wednesday night, said Lee-Ann O Brien, deputy chief of the Akwesne Mohawk Police Service.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this is a heartbreaking situation. We need to understand what happened, how it happened, and do whatever we can to minimize the chances that this will happen again. There have been about 80 people trying to cross the Mohawk territory into Canada or the United States, and most of them are of Indian or Romanian descent, according to Akwesasne police. In April 2022, six Indian nationals were rescued from a sinking boat in the St Regis River, which runs through Akwesasne Mohawk territory.

Akwesne has territory in Canada, Ontario and New York state, straddling the Canada-United States border.

Tony Jackson, an Akwesne resident, said the weather Wednesday, when Oakes was last seen, was calm during the day but later turned rough.

The east wind around here creates a lot of waves, 5 ft taller, maybe taller, Jackson said. He said he believed that Oakes'boat was less than 6 m 20 ft long.

He said that crossing the river on a little boat with many people on board called for disaster.

He said he had never heard of Oakes talk about transporting migrants. Jackson said he had witnessed groups of migrants crossing fields with bags in hand and sometimes seen boats carrying large groups of people across the river.

He said a couple of them walk down the road a couple of times in a month, walking with all their bags.