A 27-year old man tried to enter Spain, hidden inside a suitcase, locked inside a car's trunk. His older brother was driving the car, coming from Melilla, a Spanish territory in Northern Africa. According to Yahoo News, when they docked in Almeria, in Southern Spain, he realized his younger brother was no longer breathing, and no effort to revive could bring him back after the 5-hour ferry ride.
The brother has been detained and charged with involuntary manslaughter. It tells the stark reality of the great lengths people are willing to risk to gain a chance for a better life in Europe.
In May this year, a father tried to smuggle in his 8-year old boy from Ivory Coast, by placing him inside a suitcase without air vents. The police discovered the attempt to illegally enter. A picture of the scanned image of the boy inside the suitcase was taken. The father, a legal resident in Spain explained that he could not afford to pay for the processing of documents of his son. The government granted the child temporary permission to live in Spain with his parents.
There is an imposing 7-meter or 23-feet fence between the Spanish cities and Morocco. Thousands of migrants attempt to illegally enter. Some attempt to swim or sail from Moroccan shores. Four migrants recently died attempting this while three others were rescued by the Moroccan navy. Some go through land borders in Ceuta and Melilla. Africans will try anything just to get through, but authorities in Spain will also do everything to stop them. There are detection wires, 24-7 cameras, tear gas dispensers and radars, but if there is a will, there is a way.The successful migrants become refugees, lacking in food and housing, but coming from a more depressed locality, this is heaven to them.
Melilla is geographically in the northern part of Africa. It is a coastal area surrounded by waters and land territory of Morocco. Migrants from Africa and Asia make it their goal to get to Melilla because it is a Spanish territory.
