Man accused of illegal crossing into Manitoba from U.S. no longer in hospital: RCMP

A man who sufferedinjuries due to exposureduring an illegal crossing from the U.S. into Manitobaon Saturday is no longer in hospital, RCMP say.

The man, who was among four people arrested after crossing into Canada on Saturday, hasbeen released to border services, according to police.

RCMP spokesperson Tara Seel told CBC News Wednesday that she could not specify the hospitalized man's injuries further due to health privacy legislation, but said "he has been handed over to [the CanadaBorder Services Agency] at this point, so he's left the hospital."

The other three men he was arrested with were not injured and remain in the custody of the CanadaBorder Services Agency.

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

Officers found the four men, all of whom are from the north-central African country of Chad, in two separate buildings in the town.

The men are between 27 and 33 years old, according to Seel.

TheCanadaBorder Services Agency declined to comment on the matter in a Wednesday email to CBC News, but said it will be responsible fordeterminingwhether the men are allowed into Canada if they seek an asylum claim.

RCMP will only be involved in the case going forward if the men are found to have extensive criminal history or are wanted on warrants, said Seel.

She also could not speak to why the group attempted the border crossing, but says RCMP have found no indication there was anyone waiting on the Manitoba side of the border to pick them up.

The temperature at the time of their crossing was5 C, according to Environment Canada. However, a storm was passing through, pushingwind gusts to 56 km/h and making the temperature feel more like 16 with the wind chill on exposed skin.

'People have lost their lives doing this'

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

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

"In the past, people have lost their lives doing this,"Seel said Wednesday.

"Smuggling is a fairly large issue right now, and we just want to make sure that people aren't trusting their lives to people who are only in this for monetary gain," she said.

"Don't trust these people that are telling you that they're going to get you safely across, because that's just not the case."