Listen to the heartbreaking cries of children separated from their parents at the US border

This is the heartbreaking sound of children crying out for their parents at a US Customs and Border Protection facility.

The eight-minute recording includes a US Border Patrol agent joking about the cries of the children, comparing them to an “orchestra”.

The recording, obtained by not-for-profit news organisation ProPublica, is reportedly of 10 Central American children who were separated from their parents at the US border last week.

In the clip, children can be heard screaming “Mami” and “Papá” over and over again, while one six-year-old girl begs a worker to call her aunt.

A US Border Patrol agent can be heard mocking the youngsters, saying: “Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor.”

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Donald Trump has defended his administration’s border-protection policies in the face of a growing backlash over the separation of migrant children from their parents.

The President’s administration announced the family separation policy in May as a part of a “zero tolerance” crackdown on illegal immigration to the United States.

Mr Trump has declared the US “will not be a migrant camp” on his watch, saying on Monday: “I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault”.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in an appearance before the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans: “We will not apologise for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does, for doing the job that the American people expect us to do. Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get-out-of-jail-free cards.”

Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new “zero-tolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution.

The current holding areas have drawn widespread attention after journalists gained access to one site on Sunday.

At a detention centre in McAllen, Texas, hundreds of immigrant children were waiting in a series of cages created by metal fencing.