The “luxury route” to the United States for African migrants

As record numbers of people cross the border into the United States, the southern border is not the only place where the migration crisis is playing out.

Nearly three thousand miles to the south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants stream in every day, paying traffickers around $10,000 for package flights they hope will help them reach the United States.

The influx of African migrants at Bogotá airport, which began last year, is a striking example of the impact of one of the largest global movements of people in decades and how it is changing migration patterns.

As some African countries face economic crisis and political upheaval, and Europe cracks down on immigration, more Africans are taking the much longer journey to the United States.

Migrants in Bogotá come mainly from West African countries like Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, although some come from as far east as Somalia.

They are heading to Nicaragua, the only Central American country where citizens of many African countries – as well as Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela – can enter without a visa. Experts say the country’s President Daniel Ortega has relaxed visa requirements in recent years to force the United States to lift sanctions against his authoritarian government.

To reach Nicaragua, migrants undertake a journey involving several stops, flying to hubs like Istanbul, then to Colombia, where many fly to El Salvador, then to Nicaragua. (There are no direct flights between Colombia and Nicaragua). Once there, they head north again, by land, towards Mexico and the American border.

The trip, which airline employees called a “luxury route,” bypasses the dangerous jungle pass connecting South and North America called the Darién Gap.

Last year, 60,000 Africans entered Mexico en route to the United States, compared with fewer than 7,000 the year before, Mexican authorities reported. (The total number of crossings at the southern border declined earlier this year, but such surges are not uncommon and can be affected by the season and other factors.)

Among those recently disembarked at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport on a flight from Istanbul was Djelikha Camara, 24, who had studied engineering in Guinea but said she wanted to leave because a military coup in 2021 had plunged the country into crisis.

She had seen the transatlantic trip advertised on social media, she said, and thought, “I want to try it.”

A daily flight from Istanbul to Bogota, operated by Turkish Airlines, has become the most popular route for African migrants trying to reach Nicaragua, according to airline officials. But other transatlantic routes – from Spain and Morocco, with stopovers in Colombia or Brazil – have also boomed. Authorities say travel agents in Africa buy tickets in bulk and resell them for a profit.

They advertise online, including in WhatsApp groups, like the one in Guinea with thousands of members called “Let’s leave the country”.

Colombia’s migration director, Carlos Fernando García, said large numbers of Africans began arriving at Bogotá’s airport last spring after the government suspended transit visa requirements for citizens of several African countries to stimulate tourism.

In 2023, more than 56,000 people from Africa passed through Colombia, according to migration data. Officials would not provide data from previous years, but immigrant groups say last year’s figure is a huge increase and fueled mainly by migrants.

Although flying is less dangerous than traversing a brutal jungle, migrants at Bogotá’s airport have also faced hardships.

Some had to wait for connecting flights scheduled a few days after their arrival. Others found themselves stranded after discovering that El Salvador, the next country on their itinerary, charges people coming from Africa a $1,130 transit fee.

The airport does not have beds or showers for migrants. The only food and water is sold in expensive cafes.

There have been flu epidemics. A woman went into labor. In December, two African children were found in a toilet after being abandoned by travelers who were not their parents.

Mr. García said airlines were responsible for passengers at the airport between flights, not the government. “It’s private companies that are failing in their duty,” he said. “In their rush to make money, they leave passengers stranded.”

Turkish Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.

Avianca, a Colombian airline that operates several routes used by African migrants to Nicaragua, said it was obliged to carry passengers who met travel requirements.

At Bogota airport, migrants are largely kept out of sight of other passengers.

Mouhamed Diallo, 40, a journalist who taught university courses in the Guinean capital Conakry, said he spent two days in the arrivals area, before being allowed access to the departures section on the day of its next flight, to San Salvador, El Salvador.

“I found someone who left yesterday,” he said. “He had been there for 12 days.”

Many Africans taking this route are educated professionals, like Mr. Diallo, who has siblings in the United States and Europe who help them pay for their tickets.

Mr. Diallo said he left Guinea because he did not feel safe following the military coup. He is Fulani, the country’s majority ethnic group, and supported an opposition leader who went into exile, he said.

“Your leader, get out, you get out,” he said. “If you don’t do it, you end up in prison.”

Some migrants found themselves stuck at the airport.

Kanja Jabbie, a former police officer from Sierra Leone, said he paid $10,000 to travel to Nicaragua. But he only learned of the transit fees charged by El Salvador after arriving in Colombia.

He had no money, he said, and no way of getting it. There is no place to receive funds by transfer in the terminal, or even in an ATM

“I’m stuck,” said Mr Jabbie, 46, who spent three days wandering the terminal, surviving on tea.

The fees, which El Salvador imposed last fall, calling them “airport improvement fees,” are one of the main causes of the passenger backlog at Bogotá airport, according to airport officials. airline company. Nicaragua also imposes lower fees on people from Africa. Neither government responded to a request for comment.

The area around gate A9, where daily flights to San Salvador depart, is filled with migrants.

People sleep in a corner or kneel in prayer, using airplane blankets. The laundry is hung on the luggage.

One afternoon in January, a pregnant woman from Guinea sat at the door. When asked why she left, she produced a photo showing her face, badly beaten. She pulled up one sleeve to reveal a scar.

“I’m here to save my life – my life and my baby’s life. I’m hiding from my husband,” said the woman, who asked to use only her first initial, T, for her safety. “I hope I can reach the United States”

She had arrived in Bogota four days earlier. Her Avianca flight to El Salvador left that day, but she was deported.

“I don’t know why,” she said.

Airport and airline employees who said they were not authorized to speak publicly said passengers sometimes complained that migrants had not been able to swim for days.

In response, Avianca cabin crew will repeat the company motto: “The sky belongs to everyone.”

Migrants often get sick after being stuck in cramped spaces, airline workers said, and some appear frail. Last spring, on a Madrid-Bogota flight, a Mauritanian died of a heart attack.

Since December, when the two migrant children were abandoned at the airport, Colombian authorities have taken a tougher stance.

Airlines are required to check that children are traveling with adults who are their parents, and Colombian authorities are pressuring them to only allow people on board who have a connection within 24 hours.

Migration officials have also begun rounding up migrants whose tickets have expired, who are waiting more than a day at the airport, or who are coming from a handful of African countries for which Colombia still requires travel visas. transit. They put them on flights back to Istanbul.

Mr. Jabbie, the Sierra Leone policeman, was among them.

At least one episode turned violent. This month, three Cameroonian women resisted and were dragged screaming through the airport by migration agents and police and were repeatedly hit with a Taser, they said.

“When we collapse, they put us on the plane,” said Agnès Foncha Malung, 29.

Ms. Malung, who braids hair for a living, decided to leave her country with two friends, she said, after the homes of some of her relatives were burned down during clashes between Anglophone factions and French speakers in Cameroon.

The women were detained at Bogotá airport for several days due to visa issues that migration authorities explained to them before being deported.

Ms Malung, speaking by telephone from Cameroon, said the three were sharing a rented room until they considered their next move.

She said she paid $11,500 for the trip. “It cost me dearly,” she said.

Migration authorities did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the incident.

Yet many African migrants have managed to make it to the United States. Mr. Diallo, the reporter, arrived at New York’s La Guardia Airport — his ninth airport in 17 days — on a cold January day.

He traveled through Central America and Mexico in smugglers’ vehicles, he said, and sat up all night shivering in Arizona before being stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol and asked for l ‘asylum.

After being released with an appointment to appear in immigration court, he traveled to the Bronx to join his brother. He stays in his cramped apartment, he said, and helps with his work. grocery store.

Asked if he would send his wife and children on the same route, Mr. Diallo replied: “No, never.”

“Never in my life,” he added. “I have trauma.”

The report was provided by Genevieve Glatsky And Federico Rios from Bogota, Colombia; Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal; Mady Camara from Conakry, Guinea; And Safak East from Istanbul. Simon Posada contributed to research from Bogota.