Indian migrant girl died in Arizona desert as Mother sought water

New Delhi: A six-year-old Indian origin girl died of heat stroke in an Arizona desert after her mother left her with other migrants to go in search of water, a medical examiner and U.S. Border Patrol said on Friday.

The victim was identified as Gurupreet Kaur. As per reports she soon to celebrate her seventh birthday. She was found by the U.S. Border Patrol west of Lukeville, Arizona on Wednesday, when temperatures reached a high of 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius), U.S. 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 migrant families, mainly from Central America, cross the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.

Alarmingly an increasing number of Indians are among the Mexican immigrants attempting to enter the United States illegally.

The girl and her mother were among a group of five Indian nationals dropped off by smugglers in a remote border area at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 17 miles (27 km) west of Lukeville, a US border town 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Tucson.

After walking some way, the girl’s mother and another woman went in search of water, leaving her daughter with another woman and her child. However, they never returned. They were found 22 hours later stranded in the Sonoran desert.

Four hours later, Border Patrol agents found the body of the deceased girl a mile (1.6 km) from the border.

While Border Patrol blamed smugglers for the innocent’s death, human right activists said US border security measures were also partly to blame.

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