¡®Suitcase boy¡¯ could not enter Spain legally as father earned €41 too little
Eight-year-old has been reunited with his mother at a juvenile center in Ceuta
The father of an eight-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who was found earlier this month trying to cross into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta inside a suitcase was unable to bring him into the country legally because his monthly salary was €41 short.
Ali Outara, who has lived on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura for the past nine years, told a judge on Monday that he had not been allowed to bring his son Adou to Spain because he could not demonstrate that he earned the requisite €1,331 a month that would enable him to do so under Spanish law. Instead he earns €1,290 a month.
The boy was sick and the only thing he wanted was to bring him over as soon as possible¡±
Outara, who has been in police custody since his son was apprehended trying to cross into Ceuta illegally on May 7, says he paid around €5,000 to get the child across the Spanish border, but did not know in advance that he would be hidden inside a suitcase.
Appearing before a Ceuta court for the second time, he told the judge that the family was in a desperate situation. ¡°The boy was sick and the only thing he wanted was to bring him over as soon as possible,¡±?his lawyer Juan Isidro Fern¨¢ndez explained. ¡°He had already brought his daughter but a small bureaucratic problem meant he was unable to bring his son.¡±
Fern¨¢ndez said that everything had been cut short ¡°for the sake of a few euros,¡± adding that he believed Adou¡¯s parents could have appealed the decision, but had been unaware that there was such a possibility.
He also requested that Outara be released on bail, arguing that he was not a flight risk.
Outara¡¯s lawyer requested that his client be released on bail, arguing that he was not a flight risk
Adou, who has been under state care in a Ceuta juvenile center since his discovery at the Tarajal border crossing, finally got to see his mother Lucille on Monday.
The mother, who submitted to a DNA test and brought with her an Ivory Coast birth certificate to prove her relationship with her son, has requested to be given back custody, ¡°which in reality she never lost,¡± since, according to her defense, ¡°she has been far removed from all of this because she was living in Fuerteventura.¡±
¡°The boy has to be with her, because what we want is for the family to be reunited as soon as possible and that is the important thing,¡± Fern¨¢ndez said.
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