This picture of a migrant painfully crammed behind the engine of a car reveals the horrific measures hundred of desperate people are enduring to enter Europe.
The man, believed to be from the West African nation of Guinea, was found curled up behind the engine as the vehicle he was concealed in entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco.
Spain’s Guardia Civil said a further man was found hidden in a tiny space behind one of the back seats of the same Mercedes-300.
The man was found curled in the foetal position behind the car engine
Both men received first aid for lack of oxygen, heat exhaustion and inhalation of petrol fumes. Identified only as “TD and AB from Guinea Conakry”, they are now under investigation for attempting to illegally enter the EU.
The car they were hiding in, which was stopped on Sunday during a customs check at El Tarajal, near the Spanish border, was found to have forged plates; its two visible occupants, a pair of Moroccan nationals, were arrested, Europa Press reports.
Ceuta and Melilla are both Spanish enclaves on the North African coast fortified by six-metre razor wire fencing. Spain's border police caught more than 12,500 immigrants last year, most of them in those two regions, The Telegraph reports.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has recently come under fire for branding refugees in Calais a "swarm", with his defence secretary, Philip Hammond, quickly following suit by referring to African migrants as "marauders", perhaps losing sight of what thousands of displaced people are actually fleeing.
One-third of all those who claim asylum in the UK have been victims of torture, one charity claims, while hundreds of thousands flee war-ravaged, fractured homelands, making for Europe in a bid to save their families from rape, human rights abuses and death.
According to the UNHCR, the highest number of refugees coming into Europe by sea are those from Syria (34%), Afghanistan (12%), Eritrea (12%), Somalia (8%) and Nigeria (8%). Below we look at what is currently going on in those countries.
