American police officials in Kittson County, Minnesota say they found the body of a woman in a ditch about a kilometre from the border with the Canadian province of Manitoba.
It was in an area known as an illegal crossing point for migrants seeking asylum status in Canada, and indications are the woman was attempting to cross into Canada
The body has been identified as that of Mavis Otuteye, aged 57, believed to be a citizen of Ghana. She had been reported missing after being last seen in Kittson County on May 22. A preliminary autopsy indicated she died of hypothermia.
The area is near the town of Emerson , Manitoba where an average of over 100 asylum-seeking migrants per month have been crossing illegally into Canada.
Quoted by the CBC Emerson-Franklin Reeve Greg Janzen said,
“It was just a matter of time before someone was going to succumb to their injuries or get hypothermia out in the field or in the side of a road”.
In the first four months of this year figures show almost 2,000 asylum seekers have crossed illegally from the U.S. into Quebec, 477 into Manitoba, and 233 into British Columbia.
On Christmas eve 2016, two migrants crossing into Manitoba suffered severe frostbite in the bitter cold and had to have their fingers amputated.
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