A PREGNANT woman with a Spanish national ID card has reached the Greek island of Lesbos in a refugee boat from Turkey, according to the Spain-based charity Proactiva Open Arms.
Its representative, Gerard Canals, says the woman is 23 years old, named Mercedes, is five months pregnant and is originally from Panamá, but says she was brought up in Zaragoza, Aragón's largest city.
She arrived in Lesbos on a jerry-built raft along with 50 other refugees, which was intercepted by the European border control agency FRONTEX.
Before she was taken to the migrant revision centre on the island, Canals' team spoke to her and she said she joined the refugee raft because it was 'the only way to get out of Turkey'.
She says she has been in Turkey since she was 18, and that life there is 'very difficult for a woman'.
Mercedes says she has suffered physical violence and that male bosses in the workplace and at interviews expect sexual favours in return for women keeping or getting jobs.
She told Proactiva that she had not paid a human trafficker and had been allowed to travel on the raft free of charge.
According to the police in Spain, Mercedes is being held in custody whilst her national identity card, or DNI, is checked.
If it turns out the document is genuine and belongs to her, she will be 'released immediately', officers say.
But she may still face charges for attempting to cross a country border by illegal means.
Refugees and asylum seekers are generally not punished for entering countries illegally, since by definition, this is usually the only way they can get out of their dangerous situation in their home nations.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com