hundreds of people have crossed the largely unguarded border between the two countries in the last nine months making the trip in bitterly cold winter weather as you see here. cold enough, in fact, that some have lost fingers to frostbite. the cbc's cameron macintosh has this story. >> reporter: he's loading up with clothes, blankets and food. j.p.vanegas has made the trip many times picking up people walking across the border. >> i did this several times. >> reporter: a former refugee for chile, he's a senior official. he's taking supplies to emerson to help deal with a flood of asylum seekers. >> 15 years ago i was in the same shoes coming to canada for a better life. >> reporter: one hour south of winnipeg he's seen hundreds of aftrican asylum seekers particularly since the fall. under international convention, someone who walks over the border can legally make a refugee dplam canada. last weekend in bitter cold, 22 people did forcing volunteers in town to open an emergency center. today the town made a new deal with border services and rcmp. >> they assured us that they will have th