'Suitcase boy' and his mother meet in emotional reunion at Ceuta children's home
Wednesday, May 20, 2015 @ 9:56 AM
AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD African boy smuggled into Spain in a suitcase has been reunited with his mother when she travelled to Ceuta to appear in court.
Little Adou – whom some sources say is called Abou – was carried over the border from Morocco into the Spanish-owned city-province of Ceuta after his father, a legal resident in Fuerteventura since 2007, paid a 19-year-old woman to sneak him into the country.
Alí Ouattara, 43, did not know Fatima Y. intended to transport his son in a small suitcase, crouched into the foetal position with very little oxygen and unable to open the case from the inside – but he is still being held in prison without bail facing eight years behind bars for 'human trafficking'.
In the meantime, his young son is being kept in a children's care home in Ceuta while the family's lawyer attempts to get his father out of jail and allow his mother to have custody of him.
Alí, originally from the Côte d'Ivoire – formerly known as the Ivory Coast in English, until last year, and now officially referred to by its name in French – has given DNA samples to authorities in Ceuta and the boy's birth certificate has been sent to them to prove he is the child's father.
His wife, Lucie Ouattara, 38 (pictured), knew nothing about Adou's being smuggled into Spain until she saw the headlines on the news with a picture of her son through the X-ray machines at the border.
She is now in Ceuta testifying and giving DNA samples.
Lucie was allowed to visit the care home where Adou is being looked after so she could see her son under supervision.
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