Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
These images show the seven-year-old Syrian girl who was stuffed into a shopping trolley at a Spanish border crossing in a desperate bid to be reunited a woman who says she is her mum.
A Spanish man, 54, whose name has not been revealed, was arrested after allegedly being caught transporting a girl in the border area of Beni-Enzar, the border connecting Morocco and Spain in the city of Melilla a Spanish city in northern Africa.
The Spanish Civil Guard said in a press statement that the incident took place on Monday when an officer at the pedestrian control checked the bags and a shopping trolley of a man who was about to cross into the Spanish city.
Local media report the man had claimed he as only carrying food but was acting nervously and, according to the press statement “with clear symptoms of trying to avoid the control”.
The officer reportedly saw that in the upper part of the trolley there were bags of food, but when he removed them he found a girl in the foetal position.
She reportedly stood up disoriented and images show her standing in the trolley.
The girl, who was carrying Syrian passport, reportedly broke into tears and was sent to the social services of Melilla.
Local media reported that later, a 22-year-old Syrian woman living in the centre of a temporary camp for migrants in Melilla, said that the girl is her daughter, but reports state tests will need to be carried out in order to confirm this.
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The Spanish suspect, a resident in Melilla, was arrested and sent to the judge charged with a crime against the rights of foreign citizens.
The Spanish Civil Guard said that the organised human trafficking gangs take advantage of the fact that more than 25,000 people cross daily between Spain and Morocco at different border crossings.
