3 Charged After Nearly 50 Migrants Smuggled Into Quebec From US: Border Agency

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says three people have been charged with smuggling-related offences after a truck carrying nearly 50 foreign nationals was intercepted in southern Quebec.

CBSA spokesperson Guillaume Bérubé told The Epoch Times in an email that Quebec police intercepted the truck near the town of Stanstead around Haskell Road early on Aug. 3.

Quebec RCMP Cpl. Erique Gasse said during a phone interview that the truck was “suspicious” as it was at the border around 2:20 a.m. He said RCMP had received a tip about the vehicle.

Gasse said many of the people found inside the 16-foot truck “could hardly breathe.” He said it was also very hot, but many of the migrants were cold because they had walked across the border, treading through knee-deep water.

“They have to walk a couple of kilometres in the forest, and they have to cross some kind of a little river or a pond, something about knee deep. And now they were wet,” he said. “Our officers give them blankets, emergency blankets they have in the car so they can warm up a bit.”

Gasse said officers found a “couple of children,” including one who looked about 4 years old, and a pregnant woman.

He said it was the first time that police had found so many people inside a single vehicle.

“Sometimes we see a little family or a little group of people passing sometimes, but not something like that,” he said.

He said that the officers gave some of the migrants water and some food. Police then brought the group, including the suspects, to the CBSA location at the Highway 55 border crossing.

Trio Charged

The three alleged smugglers, Ogulcan Mersin, 25, and Dogan Alakus, 31, and Firat Yuksek, 31, were arrested and are facing two charges, including one charge to incite, aid, or abet or attempt to induce, aid, or abet a person to commit an offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; and a charge of assisting people to enter Canada outside of a designated customs office under the Customs Act.

CBSA is still investigating and additional charges may be laid, according to Bérubé.

The three suspects remain in custody until Aug. 6. Bérubé said the CBSA cannot make any further comments on the legal case as the matter is before the courts.

“Most of the asylum seekers were transferred to the CBSA’s refugee processing centre in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle,” Bérubé said, adding the agency does not provide details on individual cases as they are protected by the Privacy Act.

Each foreign national will be subject to immigration examinations and will be given an “independent assessment of the eligibility of their claim.”

The CBSA has processed 22,237 asylum applications in Canada as of July 27, 2025, Bérubé said. Last year at the same time, it had processed 41,187 asylum applications in Canada. The numers include all refugee claims.

CBSA officers in Quebec have processed 14,874 asylum applications as of July 27. Last year, that number was 22,337.

Dangerous Crossing

Gasse said police have been seeing more and more cases of immigrants being dropped off on the U.S. side of the border and being told to walk through the forest into Canada. He said that this presented a serious risk to those who attempt it due to weather conditions.

“Sometimes people get lost in the forest. We had some bad cases of frostbite during the winter,” Gasse said, adding in some cases people have had to have feet, hands, or fingers amputated.

He said in the summer, there are mosquitoes and “very hot weather.”

“People get lost, they get dehydrated, and sometimes when our officers find them, they are in pretty bad shape,” he said, adding he wanted to warn people not to attempt to cross that way into Canada.

“It’s very dangerous. It can be life-threatening.”