Police found an eight-year-old
Ivorian boy hidden in a suitcase that was smuggled across the border
into Spanish territory in north Africa, an official said on Friday.
A 19-year-old
woman took the case through a pedestrian crossing from Morocco into the
small Spanish-governed territory of Ceuta on Thursday, a spokesman for
the Civil Guard police force said.
"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."
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.
Many Africans try to scramble over the seven-metre (23-foot) fences that separate the Spanish cities from Morocco.
Others
smuggle themselves over the border hidden in vehicles and cargoes or
try to swim or sail from shores on the Moroccan side.
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.
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