The suitcase he was hidden inside was in the boot of a vehicle belonging to his 34-year-old brother, who was on the same ferry.
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Francisco Jerez, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Almería, said the deceased is a 27-year- old man. The brother, a Moroccan with a French passport, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, Jerez told the Associated Press.
The ferry had come from Melilla, one of two Spanish port city enclaves in northwest Africa that are bordered by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea.
When the ferry was nearing Almeria and the stowaway’s brother went to check on him, he saw that he was “suffering from asphyxia”.
The death is the latest example of the extreme measures migrants are taking to try and reach Europe.
In May police discovered an eight-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast curled up inside a suitcase – without air vents – that was being carried across a pedestrian crossing from Morocco into Ceuta, Spain’s other north African territory.
The boy was later reunited with his mother.
Four migrants died on Sunday after trying to swim to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from northern Morocco, the government in Rabat said.
The boy was eventually granted temporary permission to live in Spain with his parents.
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The statement added that three others were rescued by the Moroccan navy.
