Migrant teen found curled up inside suitcase
A migrant teen shocked officials in Spain when they found him trying to smuggle himself out of Morocco curled up inside a suitcase.
The Spanish Civil Guard released photos over the weekend of the 19-year-old from Gabon scrunched into a ball inside the chrome-colored, hard-sided luggage. He was discovered on Friday.
Police said he was helped by a Moroccan woman who was caught trying to transport him in the suitcase across the border into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in the North African country. The woman was arrested.
Gabon is in Central Africa.
News of their capture came as a stampede of 1,100 migrants on Sunday stormed the same border, which is lined with a 19-foot-high fence topped with barbed wire.
Five Spanish and 50 Moroccan border guards were injured in the mayhem, which included migrants throwing rocks and metal bars to try to break down the fence.
At least 10 of the Moroccan officers were seriously injured.
All but two of the migrants were sent back to Morocco and nearly 800 were arrested, the Spanish government said.
The Ceuta peninsula on the Mediterranean in Morocco is controlled by Spain and has traditionally been used as a transit point for trips to the Spanish mainland.
The area has been a hotbed of conflict recently as migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have tried to climb over the fence while seeking safe havens in Europe.