Girl from India dies from heatstroke in Arizona desert after being smuggled into the US
- Increasing number of Indian nationals among Asians and Africans who fly to third countries, trek through Mexico then get smuggled into the US by cartels
Gurupreet Kaur, who was soon to celebrate her seventh birthday, was found on Wednesday by US Border Patrol west of Lukeville, Arizona, where temperatures reached a high of 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit), US Border Patrol and the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) said.
The girl’s death, the second recorded fatality of a migrant child this year in Arizona’s southern deserts, highlighted the danger of summer heat as a surge of people – mainly from Central America – cross the US-Mexico border to seek asylum.
An increasing number of Indian nationals are crossing into the United States from Mexico, according to immigration officials. They are among thousands of Africans and Asian migrants who fly to third countries and then embark on an arduous trek through Mexico and into the US southern deserts led by smuggling cartels.
The girl and her mother were among a group of five Indian nationals dropped off by smugglers in a remote border area at 10am on Tuesday, 27km (17 miles) west of Lukeville, a US border town 80km (50 miles) southwest of Tucson.
After walking some way, the girl’s mother and another woman went looking for water, leaving her daughter with another woman and her child.
“Once they went to look for water they never saw them again,” said US Border Patrol Agent Jesus Vasavilbaso.
The mother and the other woman wandered in the desert and were found at 8am on Wednesday morning, 22 hours after their drop off, by a Border Patrol agent who tracked their footprints.
The mother, who did not speak English, used sign language to say she left her daughter behind, prompting a search by US and Mexican authorities, Vasavilbaso said.
Four hours later, Border Patrol agents found the body of the deceased girl 1.6km (one mile) from the border.
Border Patrol blamed the death on the smugglers for abandoning women and children in the Sonoran Desert wilderness.
“This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk,” Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said.
Agents tracked the other woman and her eight-year-old daughter’s footprints into Mexico. The mother and child re-entered the United States around midnight on Wednesday and surrendered to Border Patrol.
The deceased girl died of hyperthermia and her death was ruled an accident, said Greg Hess, PCOME Chief Medical Officer.
Human rights activist Juanita Molina said US border security measures were also partly to blame, along with the exhausted state of Indian child migrants once they reach the border.
“They’re trying to unload people in places where they can avoid detection themselves,” Molina, director of Tucson-based Border Action Network, said of smugglers. “For a young child, death can come very quickly.”
Up to May 30 this year, PCOME recorded 58 migrants deaths in southern Arizona – most of them heat related. It recorded 127 deaths in 2018.
