Abou, an eight-year-old boy from Ivory Coast was found inside a case being carried by a 19-year-old woman into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave next to Morocco, on Thursday.
When police opened the case, they found the boy in a "terrible state", a spokesman for the Guardia Civil told AFP.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported (in Spanish) that the 19-year-old is not related to the boy, and was paid by his father to carry the suitcase.
The boy's father lives in the Canary Islands and had hoped to be reunited with his son, El Pais reported.
The Spanish news agency Efe said the boy's father, also named Abou, had travelled back to Ivory Coast to pick him up, having moved to Gran Canaria in 2013.
The father then reportedly paid the Moroccan courier to carry the suitcase. A police spokesman told Efe: "She seemed to hesitate, and it looked as though she didn't want to come through the border.
"At first we thought that there could be drug packages, but gradually discovered that it was a human body."
The boy's father travelled across the border an hour-and-a-half after his son. At that point, he was detained by border guards.
The boy is now in care of authorities in Ceuta.
Source: BBC
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