8-Year-Old Boy Found In A Suitcase Safe And Well At Spanish Border

Spanish Child Protection Services have taken responsibility for an 8-year-old boy found in a suitcase by an X-ray machine at the Moroccan border.

Suspicious Guardia Civil border guards at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta noticed a woman acting oddly, stalling at the security checkpoint. The guards were expecting to find drugs or illegal merchandise but were shocked when the little pink suitcase revealed a boy packed like luggage inside.

The Guardian reported that a figure of a young child was clearly outlined in the X-ray and that the boy emerged from the suitcase confused and telling the guards his name was “Abou” and he was from the Ivory Coast.

The Guardian went on to explain that the woman accompanying the boy, identified as a Moroccan national, was arrested. A Guardia Civil spokesperson said the boy was in a terrible state and that the situation “could have ended tragically.”

A few hours passed until the border guards flagged a man, also from the Ivory Coast, who is currently a resident in the Canary Islands having crossed the same border. The man admitted the boy in a suitcase was his son after being shown a photograph.

“I just wanted to take him with me to the Canary Islands,” he reportedly told the agents.

He was arrested and the boy in the suitcase was put in the care of child protection services.

It later emerged that the woman who attempted to smuggle the boy through customs was not a relative and had been paid by the father to bring the boy in the suitcase across the border.

Ceuta and another Spanish enclave, Melilla, sit on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, creating territorial problems for both Spain and Morocco. Madrid claims they are Spanish and manages their borders, but Morocco claims sovereignty over the territories.

Thousands of Africans try to make the journey into Europe each year as illegal migrants. They cross deserts and treacherous seas, knowing full well they may be sent home at any point, all for the dream of a better life.

Six-meter-high fences surround the border areas and coastal entry point, yet the enclaves have proved to be favored areas for migrants to make the cross into Europe from mainland Africa.

In February of last year, hundreds of migrants organized an all-day storm on the fence in Melilla, with around 100 managing to make it into the enclave.

The numbers of immigrants who entered Ceuta and Melilla illegally has almost doubled in 12 months from 2,804 to 4,300, according to a report by Human Rights Watch in 2013.

[Image Credit/Guardian]