Ali Ouattara, father of the boy, was arrested at the same border crossing on charges of human rights abuse just subsequent hours after the boy was detected by officials. The suitcase was being taken through a pedestrian border crossing by a 19-year-old woman, whose identity has not been released, when a border security scanner detected the boy inside. The man, who is from the Ivory Coast, lives legally with the boy’s mother and sister on Spain’s Canary Islands, but his son lacked permission to join them there because the family’s income was deemed too low. Immigration authorities have now granted the boy authorisation to live in Spain for one year “for extraordinary reasons” allowed for under the law, a spokesman for the central government representative in Ceuta said. The boy has been staying at a centre for underage migrants in Ceuta and he can now be turned over to his mother once DNA tests ordered by a judge prove that they are biologically related. At the same time a Spanish court ruled that the boy’s father will remain in custody while the case is investigated because of the possible risk that he may flee. The defendant’s lawyer Juan Isidro Fernandez Diaz has said his client did not know the boy would be smuggled in a suitcase, believing that he would cross the border with his Ivory Coast passport and that a visa would be bought. Thousands of migrants each year risk their lives trying to enter Ceuta and another Spanish territory bordering Morocco, Melilla, in search of a better life in Europe. Many smuggle themselves over the border hidden in vehicles, cargoes, voyage or try to swim or sail from shores to different parts of Europe. These among others are shocking reminder of the migrants’ extremity to seek a better life in abroad.
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