Moroccan Migrant Suffocates in Suitcase While Trying to Reach Spain

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A migrant attempting to reach Spain from Morocco was found suffocated to death on Sunday after being stowed inside a suitcase for five hours.

The 27-year-old man was attempting to cross into mainland Spain from the country's enclave of Melilla on the North African coast. The suitcase was inside the trunk of a car belonging to his 34-year-old brother, who holds a French passport and was traveling on the same ferry.

Medical teams and ferry staff attempted to revive the man after his brother went to check on the stowaway and saw that he was no long breathing, the Spanish civil guard said.

Francisco Jerez, spokesman for the Spanish interior ministry in Almeria, said the migrant was found late on Sunday when his brother sought medical help for him just before the ferry arrived in the southern Spanish port.

The brother has since been arrested and is being held in Almeria, charged with involuntary manslaughter. A civil guard spokesman said: "This is the first case of its kind I've seen in five years working here."

Moroccan authorities have also said four migrants died on Sunday after they tried to swim around a fence to Morocco to the enclave of Ceuta.

Related: The European Union Still Can't Agree on How to Relocate Migrants Stuck in Greece and Italy

Thousands of migrants risk their lives each year attempting to enter Europe through Melilla and Spain's other North African territory, Ceuta, which are two remnants of the country's colonial past and the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

In May an 8-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast was discovered by a security scanner also curled up inside a suitcase. His father, a legal resident in Spain, had tried to smuggle him in from Morocco into Ceuta. The boy survived abd has since been granted a temporary residency permit to live with his parents.

Since 2000, more than 27,000 migrants and refugees have died attempting the perilous journey to Europe. With an unprecedented number of people breaking through its heavily barricaded borders in 2014, the European Union continues to fortify its frontiers.

In January, VICE News documented the efforts of those risking their lives to reach Europe through Melilla and the forces tasked to keep them out. Around 7,000 undocumented migrants were intercepted trying to enter Spain in 2014, according to European border control agency Frontex.

Watch the VICE News documentary, Storming Spain's Razor-Wire Fence: Europe or Die Episode 1: