Jan. 27 Mumbai, India / Toronto, Canada: Indian police are cracking down on undocumented immigration after a tragedy took the lives of four people attempting to enter the United States from Canada, according to Reuters. The family of four were identified as 39-year-old Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 37-year-old Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel, 11-year-old Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel and 3-year-old Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel. The family were found frozen to death near the U.S.-Canada border last week. India’s High Commission in Ottawa, Canada released a statement highlighting the need “to ensure that migration and mobility are made safe and legal and that such tragedies do not recur.” Six people were detained in India for running a travel and tourism agency in the state of Gujarat. Indian police official A.K. Jhala said the force was attempting to find the human traffickers who managed to send this family and others abroad via illegal channels. On Jan. 20, the U.S. charged a Florida man, Steve Shand, with human trafficking from Canada, the day after the Indian family was found. U.S. Border Patrol agents came across another group of five Indian people walking on foot, carrying a backpack belonging to the family of four who had become separated from the group. They said they were expecting to be picked up by someone, and estimated to have been walking for 11 hours. The temperature had been driven down by winds to minus 31 F°.
Jan. 28 Dresden, Germany: On Friday, six German men appeared in court in Dresden, accused of being involved in a 2019 jewel heist at a museum considered to house one of Europe’s greatest art collections, according to Reuters. Under German privacy laws, the defendants names were not disclosed. They were charged with aggravated gang theft and serious arson. Thomas Ziegler, a spokesman for the Dresden district court said, “The defendants allegedly prepared for the crime meticulously.” The prosecutors believe the six men had checked out the crime scene beforehand, and sawed through a window grating to have quick entry and exit when it came time for the heist. Dresden’s Grünes Gewölbe Museum (known as The Green Vault) estimates the total value of the pieces stolen is estimated to be $125.79 million (€113 million) suspected to have been stolen during the early hours of Nov. 25, 2019. Police offered a $556,600 (€500,000) reward for anyone capable of providing information leading to the jewels’ whereabouts. Anja Priwe, a spokesperson for the Dresden State Art Collections Museum, said “We hope that the renewed attention will lead to more insights…and more details will be revealed that will help locate the stolen jewels.”
Ongoing Lima, Peru: Following the tsunami caused by the eruption in Tonga, the high strength waves wreaked havoc on the coast of Peru, after an oil spill of a Spanish ship into the Pacific Ocean, as reported by Reuters. The oil spill has resulted in dead seals and birds among other animals washing up upon the Peruvian shore. On Jan. 20, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo declared an environmental emergency following struggles to contain the spill. “We are at a critical moment in environmental matters,” said Castillo, prior to decreeing the environmental emergency. “This is the most worrying ecological disaster on the Peruvian coast in recent times.” Spanish Energy firm Repsol, which owns La Pampilla refinery and the ship where the spill took place, refused to take accountability for the tragedy, saying on Jan. 26 that it ruled out the offshore oil spill in Peru. An unnamed spokeswoman for La Pampilla said the firm was not responsible for the spill, and instead attempted to place blame on the Peruvian Navy for mishandling the situation. Peru’s Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) issued a statement in which they claimed the area affected included 1.7 million square meters of land and 1.2 square meters of sea. It is estimated the size of the oil spill was 11,000 Repsol barrels—nearly 500,000 gallons of crude oil poured into the Pacific Ocean and reached 21 Peruvian beaches. Four Repsol executives, including Repsol’s Peru chief Jaime Fernández-Cuesta, have been barred from leaving the country by a Peruvian judge while prosecutors investigate the cause of the spill. Prosecutor Tamara Gonzales said the executives failed to comply with their “functional responsibilities” and were responsible for the contamination of the coastline. OEFA said that Repsol was not in compliance with beginning the identification of damaged areas before the deadline, and as a result, may impose a fine of up to $4.8 million. “I used to collect crustaceans, but now, when I walk to the shore, they are dead,” Peruvian Walter de la Cruz told Reuters. “Fishermen used to go sell the seafood that we collect. But now everything smells like death.”
