Forty-four asylum-seekers, most from Haiti, were found packed in the back of a 16-foot U-Haul truck in southern Québec early Sunday, according to Canadian authorities.
Canadian police also arrested three people on smuggling charges.
Cpl. Erique Gasse, a spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, estimated the asylum-seekers walked a few miles in the United States to cross the border before getting into the truck in Canada.
Working off a tip, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Sûreté du Québec intercepted the box truck just south of Stanstead, Québec, minutes north of the Vermont border station at Derby Line, Sunday at 2:20 a.m.
The truck was carrying 44 foreign nationals — including a 4-year-old child and a pregnant woman — packed in dangerously hot and cramped conditions in a suspected case of human trafficking, according to Gasse.
“They could barely breathe because there’s no opening like a bus — it’s like a closed box. So they were pretty relieved to see the police opening the door but at the same time, obviously, they got caught,” he said.
Many of the smuggled migrants were wet and told officers they had to walk for about two hours in the forest and had to wade through waist-high water before they got into the truck on the Canadian side. The weather was getting cold and Gasse said officers provided blankets and shared water and food with the asylum seekers.
“They were hungry. They were thirsty, and they needed some energy,” he said.
It was an unusually large number of people by the Canadian police’s standards, he said, as they usually apprehend families or small groups of people trying to cross the border.
“We see that a lot in Europe,” he said. “I hope it’s not a new trend.”
The 47 people were arrested and brought to the Canada Border Services Agency at the Stanstead Highway 55 border crossing, according to Guillaume Bérubé, a spokesperson for the agency.
Ogulcan Mersin, 25, Dogan Alakus, 31, and Firat Yuksek, 31, were arrested on charges of aiding and abetting to commit an immigration offense as well as a charge of assisting people to enter Canada outside of a designated customs office.
They are detained in Sherbrooke until their next court hearing on Aug. 28, for a bail hearing, according to Alessia Bongiovanni from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
“The investigation is ongoing and additional charges may be laid. The (Canada Border Services Agency) cannot comment further as the matter is before the courts,” Bérubé wrote in an email Wednesday.
Most of the asylum-seekers were taken to the agency’s refugee processing center in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle and are set to be subject to individual immigration assessments, he wrote.
Canadian news outlets, such as the CBC, have reported that many of them were sent back to the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Sen. Peter Welch’s office is aware of the incident and is working with the delegation and partners involved, said Elisabeth St. Onge, Welch’s press secretary.
Welch has condemned the Trump administration’s decision to reverse the temporary protected status and a humanitarian parole program that allows people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to legally enter and stay in the U.S. for two years.
The reversal of temporary protected status for people from Haiti endangers the safety and well-being of refugees and asylum-seekers seeking a better life, St. Onge said.
Temporary protected status is based on the circumstances in the country and Haiti has long been facing a severe humanitarian crisis involving gang violence, food insecurity and a collapsing health care system.
The situation in Haiti is actually worse this month, according to Yvonne Lodico, founder and executive director of the Grace Initiative Global, a nonprofit that provides services to several refugee groups living in Vermont, including Haitians.
Almost 1.3 million people are displaced in Haiti, which some say has the highest homicide rate in the world, according to the Human Rights Watch report Lodico cited. Violence continues to escalate, and more than 5,600 people were killed there in 2024.
“The Haitians love Vermont. It is welcoming, peaceful, and they have all been able to work and become economically self-sufficient,” she said. “However, the situation is frightening, and the prospect of being sent to a detention center provides compelling reasons for individuals to seek help and a chance to survive. So it seems that Canada, even though there is no guarantee that they will be able to stay, is worth the effort.”
Canada looks to tighten border control
The Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police work with partners “to disrupt human smuggling networks and to combat international criminal organizations that seek to profit from the desperation and vulnerability of others,” Bérubé wrote in the email.
So far this year, the agency has processed 14,874 asylum applications as of July 27 in Québec, a dip from the same period last year when it processed 22,337 asylum applications, according to data shared by Bérubé.
“People who attempt to enter Canada illegally by smuggling across the border can easily find themselves in vulnerable risky situations and may be exposed to extreme climatic and environmental conditions … leading to malnutrition or serious injury,” Bérubé wrote.
Those who enter Canada in violation of immigration laws illegally could face criminal charges, court-imposed fines, jail terms and deportation, he said.
Meanwhile, similar to the Trump administration’s continued crackdown on immigration in the U.S., Mark Carney, Canada’s newly elected Liberal prime minister, has proposed the Strong Borders Act.
It outlines sweeping changes to prevent refugee crossings, the BBC reported, and has been criticized by advocates and Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party and advocates.
President Donald Trump has long made claims about undocumented migrants and drugs moving across the U.S.-Canada border. He recently increased tariffs on Canadian imports, citing the country’s alleged failure to curb fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. But many imports will avoid the increase thanks to an existing treaty, the BBC reported.
