FERGUS FALLS, Minn. –
A human smuggling trial has heard from a migrant who survived walking in a blizzard across the Canada-United States border on the same day a family of four froze to death.
Yash Patel said he arrived in Toronto from India in December 2021 and was sent to Vancouver, back to Toronto, then to a house in Winnipeg.
He told court there were six or seven other adults from India in the house, and they all got into a van with a couple and two children already inside.
He said they were taken on Manitoba roads to the border on a very cold night with blowing snow. When the van became stuck everyone was told to get out and walk in a straight line until they came across another vehicle.
Patel says he got separated from the group and walked alone for five or six hours until he found another van …