Human trafficking: Boy in suitcase stopped by Spanish authorities

The Spanish news agency, Efe, said the boy’s father, who reportedly lives in the Canary Islands, had traveled back to the Ivory Coast to meet his son. The father then reportedly paid the Moroccan courier to smuggle his son in the suitcase. A police spokesman told the newspaper: “She seemed to hesitate, and it looked as though she didn’t want to come through the border.”

An eight-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast was discovered by customs officials inside of a suitcase in a desperate attempt by his father to smuggle the youth into Spain via Morocco, Spanish police say.

Officials say a 19-year-old woman on Thursday attempted to smuggle the boy, who police have only identified as Abou, inside of a suitcase to Ceuta, a Spanish enclave that borders Morocco.

When they put the suitcase through the scanner, the operator noticed something strange, which seemed to be a person inside the case.
The child was found in terrible state in the suitcase.

The boy is now in the care of officials in Ceuta, the smuggler was arrested.

Ceuta and another Spanish enclave, Melilla, on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, are notorious spots for migrants to try to breach the seven-meter (23-foot) fences and cross into Europe in search of a better life.