6-Year-Old Indian Girl Dies in Desert as Mother Leaves in Search of Water

In a tragic incident, Gurupreet Kaur a 6-year-old Indian migrant in Arizona lost her life as her mother left her with other migrants in search of water. As temperatures reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius), the young child passed away at the U.S. Border Patrol west of Lukeville. This is the second death of a migrant this year in the southern deserts of Arizona. 

Smugglers had dropped the 5 Indian nationals in a deserted border area 27 kilometers away from Lukeville. Gurpreet’s mother and another woman left her with a woman accompanied by her own child, in order to find water. A Border Patrol agent found the two women on Wednesday morning. The mother managed to communicate using sign language that Gurupreet was with two others. The agents then found the girl who was no more, 1.6 km away from the border.

Border Patrol blamed the death on the smugglers who had left the migrants in a remote area. Tucson Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal said ‘This is a senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk.’ The child had died of hyperthermia and her death was recorded as an accident. 58 deaths of migrants have already been recorded this year in southern Arizona, most of them due to the heat. As more Indian nationals cross over from Mexico to the US, the summer heat poses a major threat to their lives.