Child immigrant found in suitcase starts new life in Spain

An immigrant child who melted hearts across the world after he was spotted hiding in a suitcase on an X-ray scanner has started his new life in Spain. Police say little Adou Ouattara "could have easily suffocated" when he risked his life by hiding inside a small pink suitcase in a brave bid to reach Spain. But as he passed through border control in Ceuta last May, an X-ray machine revealed him curled up inside the tiny trolley dolly. He could barely stand up or speak, only managing to utter his name when border patrol officials discovered him.
He had been left behind in Africa with his older brother in Africa after the rest of the family managed to get to the Canary Islands from the Ivory Coast in a boat full of migrants in 2009 and was trying to follow them by land. Police said at the time that he could easily have suffocated in his quest for a new life and described it as probably the most shocking incident of illegal people trafficking they had ever seen.

Adou, who later spent a month in a detention centre and had to take a DNA test to prove paternity, now lives in Madrid with his mother, father and sister but his ordeal is far from over. His father, Ali is facing a prison sentence of up to three years for alleged people smuggling together with the 20-year-old woman who tried to bring the boy through customs in a suitcase. She is still in prison pending the imminent court case and faces a longer sentence of six years. After Adou was picked out by the scanner, his father was sent to prison but paid a 5,000 euro bond and was released on bail. The money was donated by a German family who had read the stories and felt sorry for them.
Adou's father says he didn't know anything about the suitcase plot and was not responsible for the illegal attempt. He has admitted paying a Moroccan 5,000 euros to get him into Spain but was unaware that it was going to be this way and would never have endorsed it.
"If I had known they were going to put him in a suitcase I would have flatly refused."
He says his family applied properly to bring Adou to the Canaries but their salary did not meet the criteria, being short by just 41 euros. After their arrival in the Canaries seven years ago, they could not be repatriated because of the war in their own country and managed to find jobs and a home. Adou now goes to school, loves Spanish food, plays soccer and "dreams of being Messi", Spanish newspapers are reporting.
Since being reunited, his family have moved from Fuerteventura in the Canaries to Madrid because of all the attention they were receiving and his constant nickname of "the child in the suitcase".
"He couldn't take it any more," said his father who denies being a people trafficker.
Human rights activists say this is just another example of the extremes people will go to in a bid to find a new life in Europe and how lives are being risked.