Videos of what appear to be Punjabis illegally crossing the US-Mexico border have surfaced.
The clips show men, women and children squeezing through a gap in a tall black fence separating the United States and Mexico. While the gaps between the rods are very small, one gap is big enough for a slim person to fit through.
After they crossed the fence, they had to go through a barbed wire with the help of traffickers. The traffickers then instructed them to take care and bid them farewell.
In one of the clips, a Punjabi woman can be heard saying, "Mein taan langh nahin sakdee (I can't cross)" but goes through the passage into the US after four other people including two children go through the gap and show her how.
Another short video shows a woman with a small boy and a male companion with two bags go through the same passage onto the other side.
A third video shows two young girls, accompanied by two women and three men cross the border. They help each other while the traffickers instruct them to go slow.
Times of India reported that Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director of North American Punjabi Association, said that women and children crossing the border is a new trend. Chahal went on to explain that while he understood women being asylum seekers, he was surprised by the number of children the parents took along.
"If these videos reflect the desperation of Punjabi families to reach abroad along with their kids, they also reflect very poorly on the governments back home. These videos also show hopelessness and complete lack of faith among people in the governments," Chahal was quoted as saying by TOI.
The videos come just a month after six-year-old Gurupreet Kaur died of a heat stroke in the Arizona desert when she and her family illegally crossed into the US from Mexico.
