The usual mode of African and Middle Eastern migrants to illegally enter European countries is by boat. Human smugglers sail across the Mediterranean Sea and drop the migrants on the coasts of Spain or Greece.

The modus, however, is dangerous, with many cases of migrant boats capsizing and their passengers drowning. Others are stopped at sea and turned back.

A human trafficker from Pakistan had a safer way of smuggling migrants.

In June, a Pakistani soccer team that landed at Osaka’s Kansai Airport was stopped by immigration agents from exiting the building. The identities and travel papers of the 22 football players were found to be bogus, and they were sent back to their country.

An investigation of the incident led to the arrest on 15 September of Malik Waqas, whose racket was to form a football team and train migrants as soccer players to play abroad, the Times of India (ToI) reported.

Waqas is accused of forging the fake players’ documents, including registration papers with the Pakistan Football Federation and travel clearances from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to ToI.

Meanwhile, several posts on social media tell of port workers in Annaba, Algeria, noticing the strange posture of some sheep in a herd they were preparing to load into a cargo vessel for shipping to Spain.

The stevedores took a closer look at the sheep and found they were fake, and three men were hiding underneath the makeshift animal covering, according to the posts.

The Facebook page of Nkhwinimba Online says the suspected stowaways were wrapped in sheep hides with only their faces exposed to blend in with the animals.

Port security guards arrested the three men suspected as migrants from Ghana trying to illegally enter Spain.