Spanish authorities found an 8-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast curled up inside a suitcase at a border crossing on Thursday after his father attempted to have him smuggled from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish territory.
The plot was foiled when police saw the boy in an X-Ray image as the bag passed through a luggage scanner. When police opened the bag, the boy was in a "terrible state," a Guardia Civil spokesperson told the AFP.
The 19-year-old woman carrying the case was not related to the boy, but had been hired by the boy's father to smuggle him into Ceuta, according to the Spanish newspaper El Pais. However, the dad said he was unaware that his son would be stuffed in a suitcase.
X-ray reveals 8-year-old migrant boy smuggled in suitcase http://t.co/4zaxSyOZbA pic.twitter.com/QGyVe4pSgB— Global Edmonton (@GlobalEdmonton) May 8, 2015
The father, who lives on Spain's Canary Islands, had hoped to reunite with his son, but his application to do so legally had been denied, he told the newspaper.
The woman was arrested at the scene and the father was detained hours later while crossing the border himself.
Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish territory, are located on the Moroccan coast and guarded closely by Spanish security, but the Moroccan government still claims sovereignty over the areas.
Thousands of African migrants risk their lives to enter the two cities illegally each year, according to Human Rights Watch.