We often hear of the border or port police finding stowaways hidden under lorries in order to make their way into Spain, but what about the young lad heading in the opposite direction?

A 13-year-old Moroccan lad arrived in Spain three years ago and had been living in a government-run home for refugee minors. He had made it to the promised land and was home and dry, but then he got homesick…

Karim badly wanted to see his family, so he chose to return the same way that he had got here; hidden in the underside of a large lorry but heading for Morocco. The trouble was that he was spotted by the Motril Port police as he wandering between the lorries waiting to drive aboard the ferry.

The result was that he was taken back to the centre from which he had escaped.

More than a few wags come up with such jokes as: “Spain’s got to be in a bad way if even the illegal immigrants are trying to escape!”

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)