An 8-year old boy was found hiding in a woman’s luggage as it passed through the X-ray scanner at the Moroccan border in Ceuta, Spain.
The boy, identified as “Abou,” told authorities that he was from the Ivory Coast. He was taken into custody by the Ceuta juvenile department, while the 19-year old woman who checked in the luggage was arrested.
Guardia Civil #Ceuta rescata a un niño de 8 años metido dentro de una maleta en la frontera http://t.co/del7A6ktJp pic.twitter.com/h4hOOqhI0P
— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) May 7, 2015
About 90 minutes later, the boy’s father attempted to cross the border but was also arrested. He was shown a picture of the boy and told that the child had been discovered. Authorities suspected the man have been involved when he stated that he was from the Ivory Coast. Authorities also believe the boy’s father paid the woman to smuggle his son. “I just wanted to bring him to the Canary Islands with me,” he told the newspaper El Pais.
The woman and the boy’s father were being held on charges of violating rights of foreign citizens, with aggravating circumstances of risking the boy’s life. The father told a judge that he was unaware that his son would be smuggled inside a suitcase, but the judge was not convinced.
Ceuta is an exclave, meaning it is geographically separated from the rest of Spain. It lies 18 miles across the water from mainland Spain along the northern coast of Africa, adjacent to Morocco. Its border is heavily protected by the Guardia Civil due to illegal immigration.