A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL?

     My wife and I always joked about stuffing one of us into a suitcase to save on airfare when we travel. I never thought anyone would actually try and do it! This story is a little old, but the judgment recently came in that the 8-year-old Ivory Coast boy who was smuggled into Spain in a suitcase, gets to stay in the country for at least a year. 

     For those of you who missed the story when it first came out; Adou Ouattara, who was caught trying to cross the border when an x-ray scanner showed him curled up in the luggage, was granted a one-year temporary residence permit. Hey, that's not bad! If I was running Spain, I would have sent him right back to the Ivory Coast. So, he's pretty lucky that he gets to stay in Spain for at least a year....And he got to travel there in a suitcase for free!

     Ali Ouattara, Adou's father who lives legally in Spain, was arrested for allegedly arranging the suitcase sneak-in. Adou is currently living at a state child center while the dad awaits to see a judge. Boarder agents caught a 19-year-old woman, who is not related to the Ouattara family, wheeling the hot pink bag across the border from Morocco to Cueta, a  Spanish-governed territory in North Africa on May 7. Checkpoint guards scanned the bag and quickly realized Adou was inside. 

     Two hours later, Ouattara, who is originally from Ivory Coast but now lives in Spain's Canary Islands with Adou's mother, crossed the same border. I'm sure not the same way, but it was the same border. He planned to bring the boy to Spain, but thought Adou would travel by car and with a legal visa. The father claims he had no idea the boy would be stuffed into a suitcase and illegally wheeled across the border. 

     Ouattara has been living legally on the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura for seven years. His Ivory Coast wife joined him a year after he moved and the couple has tried to bring over two of their children. Their 11-year-old daughter was allowed in recently, but soon after, Ouattara's monthly salary fell short of $1,480, the figure that officials believe he needs to care for his two kids. Adou's move to Spain was rejected. That's when Ali Ouattara apparently bought what he believed to be a legal visa. Ouattara's lawyer is confident a judge will accept the father's explanation and release him so that the family can be reunited. 

     Yeah! Sure! Your kid came here in a suitcase! Sure, you are free to go! Unfortunately, I don't think that's how this will play out. First of all, don't they call this endangerment to the health of a child? Secondly, shouldn't the airfare be paid? I mean this kid can't go flying for free. If they get away with this, then who's to say that people can't stuff their kids in suitcases when they're flying to Orlando to save on airfare? Hey, if they can get away with it anyone can, right?