A Moroccan man has died from suffocation while being smuggled into Spain by his brother inside a suitcase that was in the boot of a car on a ferry crossing.

The 27-year-old man was found when his brother sought medical help for him just before the ferry arrived in the southern Spanish port of Almeria, said Francisco Jerez, spokesman for the interior ministry's office in the city.

The brother, a Moroccan with a French passport, was arrested, Mr Jerez added.

The ferry had come from Melilla, one of two Spanish port city enclaves in north-western Africa that are bordered by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea and represent the only land route between Africa and Europe.

Thousands of migrants from Morocco try to enter the European Union illegally via Spain each year, especially through the enclaves.

On Sunday, Morocco's interior ministry said four migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa drowned while trying to swim around a fence from the mainland to the second enclave, Ceuta.

Three others were rescued by the Moroccan navy, the statement added.