WHAT BECAME OF ADOU, THE SUITCASE BOY?

His name was Adou, he was eight years old and he was packed in a suitcase in May 2015 to be smuggled across the Tarajal border crossing which separates Morocco from the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa.

The suitcase was in the hands of a 19-year-old Moroccan girl who hesitated before passing through the checkpoint, arousing suspicion. The police put the case through the scanner, producing a photo that shocked the world; Adou was in “a terrible state” according to a Guardia Civil spokesperson.

Now Nicolás Castellano, a journalist with Spain’s Cadena Ser radio station has turned the suitcase boy’s story into a book titled Me llamo Adou (My Name Is Adou).
Castellano narrates the odyssey of a family the Ivory Coast desperate to reunite after fleeing the poverty and violence of their West African homeland and argues that a “blunder” by the Spanish authorities was responsible for what happened to Adou, and that his father Ali was not to blame.
A French teacher, Ali was the first to leave the Ivory Coast and settle in Spain. He came illegally, on a boat that he and his traveling companions built themselves. The first attempt was unsuccessful, so he tried again and embarked on a journey that took him two years via Ghana, Burkino Faso, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco, where he was not only arrested and assaulted but also fell ill.
Three years later, once Alí had established himself in Spain’s Canary Islands and had obtained his residence papers, he set about bringing his family over so that they could be together again. First he brought his wife, Lucie, then his nine-year-old daughter, Miriam, but Adou, his youngest, was refused entry. “As the Ombudsman’s Office pointed out, the authorities did not apply the law correctly as Adou’s parents met all the requirements,” says Castellano.

“My dad wants me to be a doctor but I want to be a footballer like Messi”

Adou~

• Lucía Forero and María García