Manitoba ethnocultural communities offer love, condolences for Patel family during online vigil

Jazmín Alfaro wanted to show her love and solidarity for the Patel family, the Gujarati community and Manitoba's migrant community Friday evening.

A migrant herself from Central America, Alfaro was among more than 80 individuals from a broad range of ethnocultural communities in Winnipeg that attended a virtual vigil to mourn last week's sudden and tragic deaths of four people from India.

On Jan. 19, a group of 11 migrants from India attempted to illegally cross into the United States last week near Emerson, Man.

A family of four, identified Thursday by officials as husband and wife, Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, and Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 37, and their children, Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel, 11, and three-year-old Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, became separated from the group and died of exposure to extreme weather conditions. 

"This is a very tragic reminder that border issues happen everywhere," Alfaro said.

"This is an unfortunate reminder of what we need to do collectively and continue to do collectively ... and I think this gives us more fire to look deeper at the context of migrants here in Manitoba, in the Prairies and across Canada, and to understand this better because this should not have happened."

Susan Rodriguez, secretary general of Migrante Manitoba, was also part of the vigil.

She is also a mom.

"As a mother of two children myself, I cannot even begin to imagine the terrible circumstances the parents and their children found themselves in," Rodriguez said.

She agreed with Alfaro that more needs to be done to help make it easier for migrants — no matter what the reason for their leaving leaving their home country — to come to countries like Canada or the U.S.

Rodriguez believes there is a larger number of people fleeing from the global south, including India and the Philippines, attempting to leave uncertain futures behind for the hope of a prosperous future elsewhere. Or as as guitarist Levy Abad sings in his song We Are Migrants, "working on our dreams to be real one day."

WATCH / We Are Migrants:

She adds the current economic crisis the world is facing due to the pandemic is pushing this.

"We dream of a society where families are not broken up by urgent need for survival. We dream and will actively work for a homeland where there is opportunity for everyone to live a decent and humane life," Rodriguez said, reading a statement from Migrante's sister organization in Hong Kong.