The man whose body was found near Roxham Road earlier this week died of hypothermia while trying to cross into the US to visit family, police said on Friday.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Quebec’s provincial police, identified the man as Fritznel Richard, 44. His body was found near the US border on Wednesday afternoon.
The SQ reported that there were no signs of violence on his body.
The coroner will investigate to establish “the exact cause and circumstances of his death”, the SQ said.
The SQ confirmed that Richard was reported missing to police in Montreal in late December, but the search for him was called off on December 29 because police believed he had entered the U.S.
His body was first spotted by US Customs and Border Protection agents patrolling by helicopter just east of Roxham Road, a well-frequented unofficial border crossing used by migrants seeking asylum.
Franz Andre, an immigration consultant who has helped hundreds of mostly Haitian migrants claim asylum after crossing Roxham Road, said that while he did not know Richard personally, he knew other migrants who had returned to the United States through the unofficial border after having been discouraged by bureaucratic barriers in Canada.
“It is possible that he came with the intention of bringing his family but decided to return to find them in the US where they may already have a network,” he said.
The need to submit electronic documents in the immigration application process, as well as significant delays in obtaining work permits and unemployment insurance that does not cover rising rents and living costs, are factors that have caused others to abandon applications for asylum in Canada, Andre said.
Police have not confirmed Richard’s nationality or status in Canada.
According to the federal government, 45,250 asylum seekers arrived in Quebec between January and November 2022, most of them through unofficial entry points such as Roxham Road.
A man has been found dead near the Quebec border crossing
An investigation is underway after a man was found dead near the Roxham Road unofficial US border crossing in Quebec. Officials are releasing few details at this time, but the case may be part of a recent spike in illegal crossings into Canada.
Migrants have died trying to cross the border before. In 2019, a man from the Dominican Republic was found dead in Canada near Roxham Road, the Washington Post reported. In January 2022, the bodies of four Indian migrants were found in Manitoba near the US border.
In 2016, two asylum seekers lost their fingers to frostbite when they crossed from the United States into Manitoba on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve.
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