African migrants taking ‘luxury route’ to US
Hundreds pour daily into main airport in Colombian capital
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — As record numbers of people cross into the United States, the southern border is not the only place where the migration crisis is playing out.
Nearly 3,000 miles to the south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants have been pouring in every day, paying traffickers roughly $10,000 for flight packages they hope will help them reach the United States.
The surge of African migrants in the Bogotá airport, which began last year, is a vivid example of the impact of one of the largest global movements of people in decades and how it is shifting migration patterns.
With some African countries confronting economic crisis and political upheaval, and Europe cracking down on immigration, many more Africans are making the far longer journey to the United States.
The migrants in Bogotá come mainly from West African countries such as Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, though some are from as far east as Somalia.
They are bound for Nicaragua, the only country in Central America where citizens from many African nations — and from Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela — can enter without a visa. Experts say the country’s president, Daniel Ortega, loosened visa requirements in recent years to compel the United States to lift sanctions on his authoritarian government.
To reach Nicaragua, migrants embark on a journey of several stops, flying to hubs such as Istanbul, then on to Colombia, where many fly to El Salvador and then to Nicaragua (there are no direct flights between Colombia and Nicaragua). Once there, they head northward again, by land, toward Mexico and the U.S. border.
The trip, which airline employees have called the “luxury route,” bypasses the dangerous jungle linking South and North America called the Darién Gap.
Last year, 60,000 Africans entered Mexico on their way to the United States, up from fewer than 7,000 the year before, Mexican authorities reported. (Overall crossings at the Southern border declined at the beginning of this year, but ebbs like those are not uncommon and can be affected by the season and
other factors.)
Among those disembarking recently at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá 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 trans-Atlantic journey advertised on social media, she said, and thought, “I want to try it.”
A daily flight from Istanbul to Bogotá on Turkish Airlines has become the most popular route for African migrants trying to reach Nicaragua, airline officials say. But other trans-Atlantic routes — from Spain and Morocco, with stops in Colombia or Brazil — have also boomed. Officials say travel agents in Africa buy tickets in bulk that they resell at a profit.
They advertise online, including in WhatsApp groups like 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 appearing in 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 transited through Colombia, according to migration data. Authorities would not provide data from previous years but immigrant groups say last year’s figure is a huge increase and fueled primarily by migrants.
While flying is less dangerous than traversing a brutal jungle, migrants at Bogotá’s airport have also faced ordeals.
Some have had to wait days for connecting flights. Others have been stranded after discovering that El Salvador, the next country on their itinerary, charges people from Africa a $1,130 transit fee.
The airport has no beds or showers for migrants. The only food and water is sold
at pricey cafes.
There have been flu outbreaks. A woman went into labor. In December, two African children were found in a bathroom after being abandoned by travelers who were not their parents.
García said airlines were responsible for passengers in the airport between flights. “It’s private companies that are failing in their duty,” he said. “In their rush to make money, they’re leaving passengers stranded.”
Turkish Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
Avianca, a Colombian airline that operates several routes used by African migrants headed to Nicaragua, said it was obliged to transport passengers who met travel requirements.
In Bogotá’s airport, migrants are largely kept out of view of other passengers.
Mouhamed Diallo, 40, a journalist who taught university courses in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, said he spent two days in the arrivals area before being allowed into the departures section the day of his next flight — to San Salvador, El Salvador.
“I found someone who left yesterday,” he said. “He had been there 12 days.”
Many Africans using this route are educated professionals like Diallo with siblings in the United States and Europe who help pay for their tickets.
Some migrants have found themselves trapped in the airport.
Kanja Jabbie, a former police officer from Sierra Leone, said he paid $10,000 to travel to Nicaragua. But he learned of the transit fee El Salvador requires only after he arrived in Colombia.
He had no cash, he said, and no way to get it. There is no place to receive wired funds in the terminal, or even an ATM.
“I am stuck,” said Jabbie, 46, who spent three days wandering the terminal, surviving on tea.
The fee, which El Salvador imposed last fall, calling it an “airport improvement fee,” has been a main cause for the backlog of passengers in the Bogotá airport, according to airline officials. Nicaragua also charges a fee, a smaller one, for people from Africa. Neither government responded to a request for comment.
The area around Gate A9, where daily flights leave to San Salvador, is filled with migrants.
People sleep in a corner, or kneel in Muslim prayer, using airline blankets. Laundry
hangs on luggage.
Since December, when the two migrant children were left behind in the airport, Colombian authorities have taken a tougher stance.
Airlines are required to verify that children are traveling with their parents and Colombian authorities are pressing them to permit only people who have a connecting flight within 24 hours to board.
Migration officers have also started rounding up migrants whose tickets have expired, who linger in the airport for more than a day or who come from a handful of African countries from which Colombia still requires a transit visa. They are putting them on flights back to Istanbul.