A heartbreaking video has emerged from the US-Mexico border showing a young migrant child approaching border guards. The youngster, believed to be around 5-years-old, had been abandoned at the border and stated that he feared he would be in danger if left alone in the desert.
The video came as a huge wave of cases of unaccompanied children has emerged at the US-Mexico border over recent months. Unaccompanied children can not be sent back to Mexico by US authorities. For that reason, some parents and people smugglers are putting their children across the border alone in order to try and secure them citizenship or migration status in the United States.
In the video, the boy is crying and approaches a US Border Patrol officer in Texas. He says to the officer in Spanish:
"It's that I was coming with a group and they abandoned me and I do not know where they are at. At the end they abandoned me. I have come here to ask you for help."
The officer then asks:
"You do not know where they are at? They left you alone?"
The boy responds by saying:
"No, I am coming because if I did not, where am I going to go? Somebody could abduct me, kidnap me. I am scared."
A video released earlier this week showed a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl being abandoned on the US side of the border after being dropped over a fence by what are believed to be people smugglers.
Statistics have shown that 171,000 migrants have been detained trying to cross the border in March of 2021 alone. Among these were 19,000 unaccompanied children and 53,000 family groups.
US president Joe Biden has come under strong criticism after images emerged of one of the detention camps where the unaccompanied children are kept. It showed squalid living conditions and prison-like conditions that were likely to cause huge psychological distress.
He has since said that unaccompanied children will now be kept in hotels and that he is putting vice-president Kamala Harris in charge of overseeing the migrant flow. The President said in a statement:
"I've asked her, the VP today because she's most qualified person to do it to lead our efforts with Mexico and the northern triangle and the countries that need help in stemming the movement of so many folks stemming migration to our southern border. She's most qualified person to do it to lead our efforts."
The Mexican border and migration flow have long been hot topics in US politics. Former President Trump had as one of his key policies at the 2016 election the promise to build a huge border wall. This was only built in part due to the wall being rejected by politicians across the aisle.
[h/t: Daily Mail]
COMMENTS