/US-Mexico border: Abandoned boy sobs to officer in heartbreaking viral video | 7NEWS.com.au

US-Mexico border: Abandoned boy sobs to officer in heartbreaking viral video | 7NEWS.com.au

A viral video has captured a young boy sobbing to a US border officer saying he’d been abandoned and was afraid of being abducted.

The confronting clip, which can be seen in the player above, was reportedly filmed in Texas.

Its subject matter exemplifies a wider crisis surrounding displaced migrant children in the US.

Anjel Hernandez posted the video to Facebook, explaining some context surrounding what the boy was going through.

“Border Patrol friend was headed home when he found this child east of Rio Grande City in an area infested with rattlesnakes,” he wrote.

“Child woke up alone after being left by the group (184 of them) he had been travelling with.

“This was two days ago.”

Hernandez later provided an update on the boy, whose age and name has not been released, to his Facebook followers.

“After young boy was fortunate to be rescued by Border Patrol agent, he was taken to the Donna facility, where his family was contacted,” he explained.

The video’s poster also shared a link to a woman who’d translated the video into English.

“Somebody could abduct me, kidnap me. I am scared,” the boy reportedly said.

“I was coming with a group and they abandoned me and I do not know where they are at.”

The officer then can be heard replying to the boy in the clip.

“You do not know where they are at? They left you alone?” the officer said.

“At the end they abandoned me. I have come here to ask you for help,” the child replies.

The post has over 2500 comments and it’s been shared over 17,000 times.

Migrant children

The National Immigration Institute said that up to March 25, 4440 underage migrants had been found in Mexico so far this year.

It did not say how many were unaccompanied, though adults often travel through Mexico with minors and leave them only upon reaching the border.

“Migrants have told federal immigration agents that ‘the guides’ suggest they travel with children because it is easier to get into the United States,” the institute said.

In March, a seven-year-old Honduran girl appeared alone at the US border.

She claimed her father had travelled with her by bus across Mexico, and then he went back to their homeland.

This was not before he placed her in the hands of a young man who was to help her cross the river into Texas.

It was unclear what happened to the man who helped her cross.

The increase in child migrants represents a dilemma for US President Joe Biden’s administration as it attempts to restore an orderly asylum system.

Nearly 9500 migrant children arrived at the US border in February, up 60 per cent from a month earlier.