Washington, June 14
The body of a 7-year-old Indian girl was found in a remote desert area in Arizona earlier this
week, according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Gregory Hess identified
the girl Friday as Gurupreet Kaur, who was a month shy of turning 7. Her death
was accidental and caused by hyperthermia, Hess said.
According to authorities, the girl "was trying to cross into the US with a group
of people from her country". Her body was discovered 17 miles west of
Lukeville, just over the US-Mexico border on Wednesday, the local media
reported.
Border agents said the day when the girl's body was found, they were told that
human smugglers helped five Indian illegal immigrants cross into the US.
The group was trying to get into the US
after human smugglers dropped them off near the Mexico border, the agency said in a
statement on Thursday.
CBP described the terrain where the young girl was found as "rugged desert
wilderness" and said anyone there would have "little to no
resources." Temperatures were around 108 degrees on the day the girl is
believed to have died.
Border Patrol agents got the information on the girl's movements from two women
from India
who told officials they'd been separated from a woman and two children
travelling in their group hours earlier.
"Agents took the two women into custody and began searching the area north
of the international border in remote terrain seven miles west of Quitobaquito
Springs," the agency said in a statement cited by the US media.
"Within hours, they discovered the little girl's remains."
Agents used helicopters to search for the people she'd been travelling with and
found footprints indicating they returned to Mexico.
"Our sympathies are with this little girl and her family," Tucson
Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal was quoted as saying by CNN. "This is a
senseless death driven by cartels who are profiting from putting lives at risk."
CBP said Friday that US Border Patrol agents had located
"two missing Indian nationals" after they'd crossed the border back
into the United States.
"The mother and her 8-year-old daughter were
transported to a local hospital for treatment for dehydration," CBP said.
The numbers of Indians crossing US borders has steadily
risen in recent years. Last year, more than 9,000 people from India were
detained at US borders nationwide -- a big increase from the prior year,
when that number was about 3,100.
A decade ago, in 2009, that number was 204.
