4 people found illegally crossing border in Manitoba, 1 suffering from weather exposure

A man was sent to hospital with serious weather-related injuries after illegally crossing into Canada at the Manitoba-U.S. border with a group of people.

The RCMP received a report of four people crossing the border near Emerson, about 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg, around 7:15 a.m. on Saturday.

Police found the four men, who are from Chad in north-central Africa, in two separate buildings in town, RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel said Tuesday.

One of the men was suffering from exposure to the weather.

The temperature at the time was only –5 C but a storm was passing through, pushing the wind gusts to 56 km/h and making the temperature feel more like –16 with the wind chill on exposed skin, Environment Canada said.

RCMP patrolled the area, looking for any others crossing into Canada, but no one else was found.

"We have previously discussed the safety concerns of crossing between the ports during inclement weather. The RCMP continues to remind everyone that winter weather can quickly prove deadly," the RCMP said in a news release.

In January 2022, a family of four from India — parents and two children — died while trying to cross the border into the U.S. near Emerson.

While border officials in the U.S. have reported a sharp rise in unauthorized crossings from Manitoba to North Dakota, the same has not been seen recently for those going north.

The number of northbound crossers has dropped since peaking in 2017, Seel said.