In a heartbreaking incident, a six-year-old migrant child from India died of heat stroke, after her mother left her with other migrants to go in search of water, a medical examiner and US Border Patrol said.
The girl named Gurupreet Kaur was found by the US Border Patrol west of Lukeville, Arizona where temperatures reached as high as 42 degrees Celsius, U.S. Border Patrol and the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) told Reuters.
Sadly, she died before celebrating her 7th birthday which was approaching soon.
AFP
This is not the first fatality of a migrant child this year in ArizonaˇŻs southern deserts. Kaur is the second child to have died. Notably, there has been a surge in the number of migrant families, chiefly from Central America, crossing the US-Mexico border for the purpose of seeking asylum.
As per a report in Reuters, the number of Indian nationals crossing into the US and Mexico are increasing. Kaur and her mother were part of a group of five Indian nationals who were dropped off by smugglers in a remote border area, 27 kilometres west of Lukeville in Arizona state, at 10 am on Tuesday.
After walking some way, the girlˇŻs mother and another woman went in search of water leaving her daughter with some other migrants. "Once they went to look for water they never saw them again," said U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jesus Vasavilbaso.
The mother and the other woman wandered in the desert and were found by a Border Patrol agent who tracked their footprints, after 22 hours of their drop off.
AFP
The mother didnˇŻt speak English and communicated through sign language that she had left behind her daughter and two other migrants. Four hours later, Border Patrol agents found the body of the deceased girl 1.6 km from the border.
The Border Patrol blamed the death of the six-year-old on the smugglers for abandoning women and children in the desert. "This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk," Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said in a statement.
Agents tracked the other migrants who were with Kaur from their footprints.