Canadian police described as “a scene of horror” the discovery in early August of a truck illegally transporting 44 migrants, mostly of Haitian origin, who had entered Canada from the United States United.

According to witness accounts, the travelers were dehydrated and struggling to breathe. "It could have been a fatal ending to that story, because when our police officers opened the door, people were gasping. But it was so hot inside that some couldn't even stand up, there were so many people," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Corporal Erique Gasse.

According to one of the officers involved in the operation, the migrants were transported to the US-Canada border on the night of August 2. The smugglers told them to cross the border on foot at a location with no border crossing.

After walking several kilometers through forests and wetlands, and once in Canada, the group of migrants, including a four-year-old child and a pregnant woman, were locked in the back of another truck without ventilation.

"When our police opened the door, they told us that people started breathing properly. It was a horrific scene," Gasse said.

Canadian police arrested three smugglers and said many of the migrants would be deported to the United States.

Since Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing in Champlain, New York, closed in 2023 , smugglers now wait on the Canadian side of the border to pick up migrants fleeing the United States illegally.

In June, the Trump administration began the process of deporting more than 500,000 Haitians living in the country by signaling the end of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS).