Watch CBS News

Boy, 8, found inside suitcase at Spain border crossing

Disturbing photos show an 8 year-old who was smuggled inside a suitcase across the Spanish border
Spain: 8-year-old boy smuggled inside suitcase 00:32

MADRID -- A Spanish court has ordered the detention of a man from the Ivory Coast who allegedly hid his 8-year-old son inside a closed suitcase in an attempt to smuggle the child into Europe.

A police statement said guards stopped a 19-year-old Moroccan woman who looked nervous as she waited in line Thursday at the land border crossing in Ceuta, a Spanish city enclave in North Africa.

The Spanish Civil Guard released an X-ray image May 7, 2015 taken with a border scanner showing an eight-year-old Ivorian boy hidden in a suitcase smuggled from Morocco across the border into the Spanish governed territory Ceuta in North Africa. Spanish Gaurdia Civil/HO

When the guards put her suitcase through a scanner, they detected the boy curled up inside.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard police force told AFP that the boy was "in a terrible state."

The Civil Guard released this photo May 7, 2015 of an eight-year-old Ivorian boy found hidden in a suitcase smuggled from Morocco across the border into the Spanish governed territory Ceuta in North Africa. Spanish Gaurdia Civil/HO

Border officers detained the woman and, later, the child's father at the same border crossing.

A Ceuta magistrate on Friday ordered the father held on charges of human rights abuse.

According to AFP, each year thousands of migrants make desperate attempts to enter Ceuta. A Moroccan man was found in a shipping container earlier this week in the port of Melilla.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.