A teenager attempts to migrate the child to Spain from Morocco at the request of the child’s father
An 8 year old boy was discovered inside a suitcase during a routine scanner check in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave that borders Morroco. A 19 year old girl attempted to bring the child from the Ivory Coast to Spain at the request of the child’s father. A spokesman for the Civil Guard police force said that the teenager took the suitcase through a pedestrian crossing from Morocco into the small Spanish-governed territory of Ceuta on Thursday.
“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. Spanish news agency, Efe, said the boy’s father, who resides in the Canary Islands, had traveled back to Ivory Coast to meet his son. The father then reportedly paid the Moroccan courier to smuggle his son in the case. A police spokesman told the newspaper, “She seemed to hesitate and it looked as though she didn’t want to come through the border.”
Human Rights Watch said at least 4,300 people entered the Spanish enclaves in 2013, compared to 2,804 the year before. Ceuta has become a major passage of escape for immigrants trying to enter Spain while avoiding the 23 foot fence that blocks the border between Africa and Spain. The Business Insider reports that the Civil Guard arrested the woman, who is due to go to court. They also arrested the boy’s father when he tried to cross the border a few hours later.
If amnesia has gotten the best of Spain’s memory, perhaps history should be provided. Africa and Spain’s complicated history trace back to Spain’s conquest and colonization of Africa in which the Spanish conquistadors bombarded Africa and raped the people of their freedom and wealth while stealing Africa’s greatest natural resources but becoming massively wealthy, before returning to Spain. Despite this “cause and effect” troubled history, ironically African migrants are not as welcome in Spain and often risk their lives trying to enter Spain or are imprisoned in the process of finding a better life.
-Abesi Manyando(@abesipr)
