Boy Smuggled In Suitcase : Border police scanner reveals boy, 8, curled up in suitcase (Video)

Police found an 8-year-old Ivorian boy hidden in a suitcase that was smuggled across the border into Spanish territory in northern Africa, an official said on Friday.

He was stopped trying to get into Cueta, Spain, where his a woman, 19, was spotted acting suspiciously.

Fortunately the boy, who said his name was Abou, appeared to be unharmed.

A spokesman for the Spanish Civil Guard said: ‘This could have had a tragic end.’

It is believed they were trying to enter Europe from Morocco.

A woman in the Spanish Canary Islands has said that she was his mother and was waiting for her son’s arrival.

More than 7,840 illegal entries were recorded in 2014 along the same route by Frontex, a slight increase on 2013 but less than the record struck in 2011 of 8,450.

On this migration route, more than half of the crossings concern the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Moroccan territory.

The proportion of migrants trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, usually in rubber dinghys, account for 45 percent of illegal migrants detected in this area.

Agencies/Canadajournal