Driver charged with smuggling after eight asylum seekers found in vehicle during city traffic stop

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This article was published 23/02/2024 (561 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is facing human smuggling charges after a vehicle containing eight foreign nationals from Africa was pulled over in a traffic stop early Thursday.

An RCMP traffic services officer stopped the vehicle on McGillivray Boulevard inside the City of Winnipeg at about 2 a.m., spokesman Sgt. Paul Manaigre said.

A driver and eight passengers were in the vehicle. Seven of the passengers were men between the ages of 25 and 36, and the other was a 33-year-old woman.

Seven of the passengers are from Chad, and the other is from Mali. RCMP did not say which passenger is from Mali.

Manaigre said he was given limited information about the case, and doesn’t know why the officer pulled over the vehicle.

He said the officer had suspicions of human smuggling while doing background checks on the driver.

A member of the RCMP’s integrated border enforcement team was called in to assist, after the officer conducted checks on the passengers.

Manaigre did not know if the group illegally walked across the Canada-U.S. border, nor where the passengers were picked up.

The 30-year-old driver, Abdi Hassan Ali, was arrested for human smuggling under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and remanded into custody.

Manaigre said Ali allegedly had prior police involvement related to human smuggling, as “information came up where he was involved in files.” The officer was not aware of any previous smuggling-related charges against the suspect.

Ali has no past convictions in a Manitoba court, records show. He remains in custody.

The eight passengers were arrested under the Customs Act and then handed over to the Canada Border Services Agency for immigration processing.

This winter, Manitoba RCMP have intercepted an increasing number of asylum seekers from Chad, a north-central African country that has been in a political and security crisis.

Authorities say organized smuggling networks are preying on migrants’ hopes and dreams.

“We can understand they want a better life. There are, certainly, those who are going to take advantage of that,” said Manaigre.

He said the RCMP encourages people to go through proper immigration channels, rather than attempting to walk across the border between ports of entry due to the safety risks.

In January 2022, a family of four from India, including two children, froze to death in a field east of Emerson while trying to walk into the U.S.

A Calgary man was charged with human smuggling in Manitoba after he allegedly picked up seven men from Chad who walked across the border near Emerson on Jan. 27. Saleh Youssouf, the 49-year-old driver, was charged in that case.

Four men from Chad were found by RCMP after crossing the border near Emerson in December. One suffered serious weather-related injuries.

Changes made to the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement in 2023 mean people who walk into either country between ports of entry are to be turned back, if found within 14 days of their arrival.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca