Breasts of frost and fear: within a trip to Canada with human smugglers

Sheidi Nonagu says he made a “stupid” decision that pushes human smugglers to bring him into Canada, who left him permanently and in the hands of the American immigration authorities who were trying to escape.

The 57 -year -old says he paid 2000 USD in cash to a human smuggling organization in New Jersey to escape from the migration raids sweeping the United States, says smugglers lied to him about the risks of the trip that almost killed him along the border between New York and Cubic in February this year.

“If I knew this would be the result, I don’t think I was going to do it,” NWAGBO said in a telephone interview with CBC News from the CBC News from the ICES and Customs detention center in Batavia, New York.

The border rights clinic in Canada and the United States, an organization that provides legal advice to immigrants, is working on its case, but it faces an imminent deportation to Nigeria-a country that he left 37 years ago.

He now warns others against following his steps.

Choose to leave the United States

NWAGBO moved to the United States from Nigeria in the late eighties, where he built life. He has five children born in the United States of two marriages.

He received a courageous prize in 2014 from the Columbus Fire Department, Ohio, after rescuing a 10 -year -old girl from drowning. However, he failed to obtain American citizenship and faced an order to remove in 2021 after he lost his appearance in a migration session, whose lawyer blamed a “scheduling error”, according to the records.

Nawagu said he felt he had no choice but to flee to Canada after US President Donald Trump’s victory in the elections last November. A friend gave him a phone number linked to the WhatsApp account, which is run by human smugglers from New Jersey.

He flew from Atlanta, Georgia, to Newark, New Jersey, early on February 1, then Uber took McDonald’s in Patterson, New Jersey, where the smugglers told him that he would be captured.

NWAGBO, USD, says cash stuffed in his pocket, he has been waiting for several hours.

He said, “I was afraid. I felt nervous.” “I thought,” What if they were the police, ice, or something like that? ”

Finally, he received a text telling him to go out where the Beck App truck waited. He was transferred to Dunkin Donuts and transferred to the rear seat of four -wheel drive vehicles with Florida panels. They went to the Canadian border early in the afternoon. He says the journey took about seven hours.

About 15 minutes before the landing point somewhere along a rural road near the borders of New York State with Quebec, Nawago says that the smugglers told the group to get out of the car and run to the bush. He was told to download the Compass app on his phone and keep the arrow indicates the north.

They have made sure that someone will wait for them to receive them on the other side.

“Once I took a few steps, I knew I was making a mistake,” he said.

Frozen road to Canada

NWAGBO remembers thinking that he would freeze to death as he wanders in deep snow in the forest for hours under the moon wax on that cold night.

A woman from Guinea, who walked with him, continued to lose her shoes in the snow until finally, left her and continued her socks. Two Haiti women have struggled behind, one with a 11 -month -old boy.

When NWAGBO pushed his way through snow and brush, he lost his gloves and every feeling of his fingers, making it difficult to answer calls from smugglers who try to direct their movements.

“These people will call me and say, just continue, you only have 10 minutes,” he said. “It was supposed to be 30 and 40 minutes on foot.”

It exhausted and numbness of the temperatures that decreased to -28 ° C overnight, and they called 911 to help. NWAGBO was not sure the place where he was on the border, and he was afraid of the American border patrol agents.

“When I discovered that he was a Canadian (the police), that was a great relief,” he said.

Trip price

The journey paid a price on NWAGBO. Frostbite forced amputation of pinky, ring and middle finger with the top of his thumb on his left hand. He lost the top of his middle and solid fingers on his right hand.

Quebec RCMP said that the officers received a call on February 1 that a woman and her children were lost in a forest border area, about 30 kilometers south of Salabari de Valleville, Qi.

RCMP CBC News told that the officers found a group of three women, one man and a child “illegally crossing from the United States to Canada.”

The group was transferred to the hospital and was treated for “different frost groups”, according to RCMP. Then they were transferred to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) in the port of Saint-Burnard Lacole, about 64 km south of Montreal.

NWAGBO was one of 99 people intercepted by RCMP in February who crossed irregularly on the border in Quebec-the United States, according to immigration, refugee and citizenship data in Canada (IRCC).

The latest data says that RCMP intercepted 329 people crossing in Quebec from the United States from January to April. This number is slightly higher at 2024 levels.

“They may remove it”

Nawagu said he chose to use human smugglers because he mistakenly believed he needed to go through American customs to reach a Canadian port.

“I had no information I needed to make the right decision,” he said.

NWAGBO submitted a demand for asylum in the port of Saint Bernard Lacole, saying he had a brother who was a Canadian citizen. This is one of the exemptions under the STCA agreement between the United States and Canada.

Under the agreement, refugee claims must be submitted in the country where people reach the first time. For this reason, Canada removes most asylum seekers who are trying to enter from the United States at the Earth’s crossings, but there are exceptions to this rule.

The demand for asylum was rejected after a CBSA officer decided that he could not prove the relationship with his older brother Julie Nawago, 74.

“He did not have a copy of his birth certificate to confirm the relationship,” read the CBSA decision obtained by CBC News.

CBSA officer wrote that they could not reach NWAGBO’s brother by phone despite three attempts. NWAGBO was transferred to reservation in Champlain, New York, the port of entry later that day, according to the records.

Jolly Nawago, who lives in Saint Catherine, Oanton, says he has not received a call from CBSA.

“The situation is now unfortunate,” he said.

The writer and academic say that his family faces a danger in Nigeria as a result of his book, Nigeria for saleAbout corruption in the country. Jolly says his brother can be killed if he is deported to Nigeria.

“They may remove him because he is my brother,” he said, noting that other family members are hiding.

The family is also part of the Igbo tribe, which historically faced persecution in Nigeria.

Gauri Srenevasan, co -executive director of the Canadian Refugee Council, says they have received reports that CBSA is taking a more difficult line of asylum claims submitted under exceptions to the secure third province’s agreement.

“We have seen a major shift in how the boundaries are applied, with severe consequences,” said Serenivasan.

Between January 1 and July 7, CBSA ordered the removal of 620 people who were irregularly crossed between entry ports and were not qualified under STA, according to the latest CBSA data. The agency ordered the removal of 645 people between January 1 and July 31 under the same circumstances in 2024.

NWAGBO, who is still awaiting a word about when to be deported, says he sorry for his decision to use smugglers to come to Canada and warn others now.

“Don’t do it. It’s risky.”

“They only care about money. They don’t care about your safety,” said smugglers.