Indian village mourns family who froze to death on US-Canada border

[Bilal9]

The deaths amid sub-zero temperatures have cast a spotlight on human smuggling operations in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat​

The Patel family of Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, 3, pose in this undated handout photo released by the RCMP on January 27, 2022 Reuters

Reuters

January 28, 2022 10:07 PM

Relatives and neighbors of the Indian family who froze to death near the US-Canada border last week said the father repeatedly failed to secure better paid jobs in recent years, prompting them to take a risky trip aided by an illegal migrant network.

The deaths amid sub-zero temperatures, described as a "mind blowing" tragedy by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have cast a spotlight on the economic pressures and human smuggling operations in Indian premier Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat.

Relatives of Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, who along with his wife and their two children froze to death near the border between the United States and Canada last week, gather to mourn the deaths at Patel’s home in Dingucha village in the western state of Gujarat, India, January 28, 2022 Reuters

Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishali and their two children aged 11 and 3, were trying to enter the US illegally when they got caught in a blizzard and froze to death in the Manitoba province of Canada on January 19, Canadian and Indian authorities said in a statement.

The victims, residents of Dingucha village in Gujarat, had left their ancestral home this month after they incurred severe financial losses while operating a small retail shop and were unable to make ends meet from their farm income.

"The couple felt they were struggling to run their home and the kids needed better education...they decided to leave India because they failed to find a good job here," said Sanjay Patel, a cousin of the victim who lives in Dingucha, home to more than 1,200 families.

Despite being a highly industrialized state, thousands of locals from Gujarat leave for the United States and Canada looking for better opportunities.

More than 2,000 residents of the village have migrated to the United States in the last 10 years, mainly working at gas stations, malls and restaurants, said Patel who is also a member of the village's self-governing council.

"People from our village and neighboring areas believe prosperous lives can become a reality when we go abroad," said Patel, adding that three temples, two bank buildings, two schools and a medical center were funded by villagers living overseas.

"We are in state of shock after the incident but the government has not built our village, its only our people living in America who send money to establish better services here," he said.

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Also read - India probes illegal immigration after tragedy near Canada border

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Posters of travel and immigration agents advertising what they described as easy US, UK and Canadian visa facilities are pasted on several walls of the village square, where locals on Friday gathered to mourn the loss.

The US authorities charged a Florida man, Steve Shand, with human trafficking after the four -- a man, a woman, a baby and a teenager - were found dead in Manitoba, a few yards north of the frontier with Minnesota.

The Indian police said they had detained 13 travel agents and were investigating the case to unearth illegal immigration networks running across Gujarat, a highly industrialized state with an influential diaspora based overseas.

An Indian police official investigating the case said the deceased Patel was one among tens of thousands of locals who immigrate to the West as they are reluctant to take up menial jobs which they consider beneath their social standing.

"The Patel community has historically chosen to settle abroad but now we are seeing increased number of cases where people are willing to sell their land, gold just to find a way to live in Canada or America," said the official, Ajay Parmar.

"Everyone wants better jobs and those are not easily available in India," he said.

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This is Modi's Gujarat Model on Display...where are the Bhakt Chest Beaters now..."shining India" indeed.

 

[SecularNationalist]

Why these stupid people are leaving the supa powa since 2012 to live far away in a similar supa powa?

 

[K_Bin_W]

A tragedy.... Lots of people cross US/Canada border illegally but in this case, its common sense, a long journey in sub-zero temperatures, How stupid can you get.

Coming from India looks like the family was not aware of how deadly extreme cold temperatures can be or they may not have taken the risk.

Either way, rest in peace and hopefully, it will serve a lesson to others.

 

[waz]

They were from Gujarat? I thought the place was prosperous?
Very sad to see their deaths, may their family have peace.

 

[peagle]

The deaths amid sub-zero temperatures have cast a spotlight on human smuggling operations in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat​

The Patel family of Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, 3, pose in this undated handout photo released by the RCMP on January 27, 2022 Reuters

Reuters

January 28, 2022 10:07 PM

Relatives and neighbors of the Indian family who froze to death near the US-Canada border last week said the father repeatedly failed to secure better paid jobs in recent years, prompting them to take a risky trip aided by an illegal migrant network.

The deaths amid sub-zero temperatures, described as a "mind blowing" tragedy by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have cast a spotlight on the economic pressures and human smuggling operations in Indian premier Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat.

Relatives of Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, who along with his wife and their two children froze to death near the border between the United States and Canada last week, gather to mourn the deaths at Patel’s home in Dingucha village in the western state of Gujarat, India, January 28, 2022 Reuters

Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishali and their two children aged 11 and 3, were trying to enter the US illegally when they got caught in a blizzard and froze to death in the Manitoba province of Canada on January 19, Canadian and Indian authorities said in a statement.

The victims, residents of Dingucha village in Gujarat, had left their ancestral home this month after they incurred severe financial losses while operating a small retail shop and were unable to make ends meet from their farm income.

"The couple felt they were struggling to run their home and the kids needed better education...they decided to leave India because they failed to find a good job here," said Sanjay Patel, a cousin of the victim who lives in Dingucha, home to more than 1,200 families.

Despite being a highly industrialized state, thousands of locals from Gujarat leave for the United States and Canada looking for better opportunities.

More than 2,000 residents of the village have migrated to the United States in the last 10 years, mainly working at gas stations, malls and restaurants, said Patel who is also a member of the village's self-governing council.

"People from our village and neighboring areas believe prosperous lives can become a reality when we go abroad," said Patel, adding that three temples, two bank buildings, two schools and a medical center were funded by villagers living overseas.

"We are in state of shock after the incident but the government has not built our village, its only our people living in America who send money to establish better services here," he said.

---

Also read - India probes illegal immigration after tragedy near Canada border

---

Posters of travel and immigration agents advertising what they described as easy US, UK and Canadian visa facilities are pasted on several walls of the village square, where locals on Friday gathered to mourn the loss.

The US authorities charged a Florida man, Steve Shand, with human trafficking after the four -- a man, a woman, a baby and a teenager - were found dead in Manitoba, a few yards north of the frontier with Minnesota.

The Indian police said they had detained 13 travel agents and were investigating the case to unearth illegal immigration networks running across Gujarat, a highly industrialized state with an influential diaspora based overseas.

An Indian police official investigating the case said the deceased Patel was one among tens of thousands of locals who immigrate to the West as they are reluctant to take up menial jobs which they consider beneath their social standing.

"The Patel community has historically chosen to settle abroad but now we are seeing increased number of cases where people are willing to sell their land, gold just to find a way to live in Canada or America," said the official, Ajay Parmar.

"Everyone wants better jobs and those are not easily available in India," he said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is Modi's Gujarat Model on Display...where are the Bhakt Chest Beaters now..."shining India" indeed.

I've seen Indians highlight immigrants from other countries to highlight something downtrodden, it's a shameless approach. This needed to be said.


But, Rest In Peace, I do hope they did not suffer too much.
For their sake let's hope all our countries develop so that such things stop happening.

 

[ApparentRaceTraitor]

The only sympathy I have is for the kids. To die in Manitoba of all places To have parents willing to risk their life kid's lives. To have parents willing to break the law. What a fine fkin example of fatal parenting.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Rest in peace.

 

[Windjammer]

They were from Gujarat? I thought the place was prosperous?
Very sad to see their deaths, may their family have peace.

The news is that the deceased was pretty well off but he still paid $100,000 to escape India and somehow to enter America. Why did he have to put his wife and kids through such trauma.

 

[Species]

Relatives and neighbors of the Indian family who froze to death near the US-Canada border last week said the father repeatedly failed to secure better paid jobs in recent years, prompting them to take a risky trip aided by an illegal migrant network.

"The couple felt they were struggling to run their home and the kids needed better education...they decided to leave India because they failed to find a good job here," said Sanjay Patel, a cousin of the victim who lives in Dingucha, home to more than 1,200 families.

This presents an accurate picture of the extremely low living standard in India.

I know one Indian IT professional, regularly visits Bangladesh under an agreement between a Bangladeshi and an Indian IT company, on different assignments spanning few weeks. He is a mid-level professional and earns a mere 35,000 rupees per month. A similar level Bangladeshi IT professional would earn around 100k. Reason why Bangladesh is a popular destination for educated Indian job-seekers.

If you walk around Kolkata, all the shops and retailers depend on the spending by Bangladeshi tourists which constitutes around 40-60% of their annual sales. Shows the purchasing power of Indians.

Millions of Indians are also involved in smuggling goods to Bangladesh, which happen to be written off as "Indian purchases".

 

[Samurai_assassin]

Some indians were over enjoyed at the deaths of Pakistanis in Murree last month.
Not that I'm instigating we should cheer this sad tradegy.

 

[Trango Towers]

They were from Gujarat? I thought the place was prosperous?
Very sad to see their deaths, may their family have peace.

I thought India is also a well developed superpower but the poor still leave. Sad

 

[GamoAccu]

Mexico is another place for Indians.

More Migrants From India Try To Get Into U.S. From Mexico

Before the pandemic, 100 times more Indians were being detained annually on the U.S.-Mexico border, compared to 10 years ago. Officials say the economic migrants believe smugglers promising asylum.

www.npr.org

 

[INS_Vikrant]

They were from Gujarat? I thought the place was prosperous?
Very sad to see their deaths, may their family have peace.

Gujartis and Punjabis on our side are two groups crazy about migrating to US/UK/Canada. It's sort of a thing ingrained from childhood to go to America as ultimate life goal. Even though most of them live a decent quality of life in India better than some impoverished states like Bihar they still wanna go and settle abroad even though it means doing menial jobs for rest of their lives. God knows why.

 

[Samurai_assassin]

Gujartis and Punjabis on our side are two groups crazy about migrating to US/UK/Canada. It's sort of a thing ingrained from childhood to go to America as ultimate life goal. Even though most of them live a decent quality of life in India better than some impoverished states like Bihar they still wanna go and settle abroad even though it means doing menial jobs for rest of their lives. God knows why.

Funny enough people from Pakistans Gujrat city situated in Punjab also have a habit of migrating to the west. Thousands migrated to several European countries in the 80s and 90s mainly to Italy, Spain and UK. Denmark and Norway also have large communities of these people, some are even third generation now.

 

[Bilal9]

They were from Gujarat? I thought the place was prosperous?
Very sad to see their deaths, may their family have peace.

This is the sad actual scenario of the much bandied about hoopla of the "Gujarat Model".

As always in India, everything is for show.

You can have a hundred million dollar refinery and a billion dollar port in Gujarat built by the Ambanis and Adanis, but if you can't give people jobs, then how will they eat? These mega-billionaires ("Dhan-Kuber" is the word used in Eastern India) don't care about underclass people's welfare. Nor will the BJP politicians and fascists, who are in the pocket of these Billionaires.

India is the perfect example of unequal development and jobless growth where only the rich get richer and a few of their propagandist bhakt cheerleaders (like we have here on PDF) keep trumpeting how "advanced" a "superpower" India is. Looks fine on paper as per capita GNP and per capita GDP (PPP) but actual story is different.

In actuality middle and lower middle class people have little options but to illegally immigrate overseas. For a couple of peon jobs in UP - 50,000 people apply. This is the real face of India, whose "Aam Janta" never gets the benefit of supposed Indian "wealth". This is what I (and many other Bangladeshis) have seen from our frequent visits to India in the past and this is by BJP/VHP design. Preservation of the Brahmin status quo where underclass Hindu castes remain underclass and forever hungry.

In Bengali we have a saying, "Bahar mei fit-phaat, andar mei Sadarghat". Sadarghat is a notoriously filthy ferry terminal in old Dhaka. This is the real picture of India.

@jamahir bhai - can you kindly shed some light on what I spoke on this? What have you seen?