Players hear cries beneath their bus: a 17-year-old Moroccan had been hiding there since Sebta
A 17-year-old Moroccan teenager crossed the Strait hidden beneath the Real Valladolid team bus. Exhausted after the ferry journey and about a hundred kilometers in Spain, he called for help. The players heard his cries.
Real Valladolid were returning on Sunday evening from a match played in Sebta when members of the team heard noises coming from the lower part of their bus. They asked everyone on board to remain silent before making out banging and calls for help.
The vehicle was then on the AP-4 motorway, about an hour and a half after leaving the port of Algésiras. The driver stopped at a service area near Jerez de la Frontera, between Cadiz and Seville.
The players discovered a Moroccan teenager hidden beneath the vehicle, near the rear axle. The young man had crossed the Strait in that position before traveling another hundred or so kilometers on Spanish roads.
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According to the account collected by El País, he was exhausted and could barely move. The players helped him out, then gave him water, food and clothes while waiting for emergency services to arrive.
The Real Valladolid doctor provided him with first aid. An ambulance then examined the teenager, who had some bruises, before he was taken into the care of the Guardia Civil.
He asked to be taken to a center for minors
Communicating with the young Moroccan proved difficult. He spoke little French and did not know Spanish. The club members used the translator on their phones, then sought help from someone who spoke Arabic.
The teenager told them that he was 17 and asked to be taken to a center for minors in Algésiras. Real Valladolid vice-president Jorge Santiago said that the entire team was deeply shaken by what they had discovered.
« He is a 17-year-old child », he explained to the Spanish daily, stressing that the club had simply sought to provide him with water, food and humanitarian assistance before notifying the authorities.
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The journey shows how far some young people are prepared to go to leave Sebta and reach the mainland. Since the mass crossings at the end of July, more than 2,100 minors have been identified in the Spanish enclave. Many seek to reach the mainland despite the checks carried out at the port.
