Iona Napier
THE father of an eight-year-old Moroccan boy, who was caught being smuggled in a suitcase over the Spanish border in Ceuta, has claimed he did not know it was set to happen.
The Ivory Coast father, Ali Ouattara, had employed intermediaries to get his son into Spanish territory but expected the operation to be legal, his lawyer claimed.
Ouattara, was seized by police when the young child was found by border police in the suitcase of a 19-year-old woman acting ‘suspiciously’.
He has admitted he liaised with smugglers when he could not afford the €5,000 cost for his son to have residency.
The photograph of the security scan of the suitcase has served as a shocking reminder of the lengths Africans will go to in order to enter Europe.
