Eight-year-old African smuggled to Spain in suitcase

 

Police found an eight-year-old Ivorian boy hidden in a suitcase that was smuggled across the border into Spanish territory in north Africa. A 19-year-old woman took the case through a pedestrian crossing from Morocco into the small Spanish-governed territory of Ceuta.

 

"When they put the suitcase through the scanner, the operator noticed something strange, which seemed to be a person inside the case," he told AFP. "When it was opened they found a minor, in a terrible state."

 

 X-ray image showing an 8-year-old sub-Saharan boy hidden in a suitcase

 

The boy said he was eight years old and from Ivory Coast, according to the spokesman. The Civil Guard arrested the woman, who was due to go before a judge. They also arrested the boy's father when he tried to cross the border a few hours later. The father is Ivorian and lives in Spain's Canary Islands.
 

Thousands of migrants each year risk their lives trying to enter Ceuta and another Spanish territory bordering Morocco, Melilla, in search of a better life in Europe.

 

Earlier this week a 23-year-old Moroccan was found in a shipping container in the port of Melilla. He was dehydrated after four days cooped up without food or water, since the container was left unattended over the May holiday weekend.