A major hub for migrants traveling in significant numbers to the United States is now Colombia’s main airport. Some were forced back, while others were left stuck for weeks.
The migration crisis is not limited to the southern border; it is also affecting other areas of the country as an unprecedented number of individuals enter the country.
Hundreds of African migrants have started arriving daily within Colombia’s largest international airport, some 4,800 kilometers to the south. They pay traffickers roughly $10,000 for package flights that they believe would help them get to the United States.
The influx of African migrants at Bogota’s airport, which started last year, is a prime illustration of how one of the biggest human displacements in history is changing migratory patterns and its effects.
A growing number of Africans are traveling the considerably longer distance to the United States at a time when certain African nations are experiencing political unrest and economic crises, and Europe is clamping down on migration.
Primarily from West African nations like Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, Bogota’s immigrant population also hails from farther east nations like Somalia.
Their target is Nicaragua, the only nation in Central America that allows entry without a visa for nationals of numerous African nations as well as Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela. According to experts, President Daniel Ortega has loosened visa rules recently in an effort to pressure America to relax sanctions against his autocratic government.
Migrants travel in multiple directions to reach Nicaragua. They first fly to Istanbul, Turkey, and then Colombia, from which many continue on to El Salvador and finally Nicaragua. (Direct flights do not operate between Nicaragua and Colombia.) After that, they travel north once more by land in the direction of Mexico and the US border.
The journey, dubbed “the luxury way” by airline staff, avoids the Darien Gap, a treacherous jungle that connects Central and South America.
According to Mexican authorities, the number of Africans who crossed into Mexico on their way to the United States increased to 60,000 last year from less than 7,000 the year before. (Earlier this year, the total number of crossings across the southern border of the United States decreased; however, such flows are not unusual and can be influenced by the season and other circumstances.)
One of the people who recently landed at Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport from Istanbul was Djelikha Camara, a 24-year-old who had studied engineering in Guinea before fleeing the country following a military coup that destabilized the nation in 2021.
He claimed to have noticed advertisements for the transatlantic journey on social media and decided to give it a shot.
Authorities said that the most common route for African migrants attempting to reach Nicaragua is Turkish Airlines’ daily flight from Istanbul to Bogota. However, more transatlantic routes have also expanded, departing from Spain and Morocco and making stops in Brazil and Colombia. Travel agencies in Africa allegedly purchase tickets in large quantities and then resell them for a profit.
They promote themselves online, notably in WhatsApp groups such as “Let’s go out of the nation,” which has thousands of members in Guinea.
Carlos Fernando Garcia, Colombia’s director of migration, said that after the government lifted the necessity for transit visas for nationals of numerous African nations in an effort to promote tourism, a significant number of Africans started to arrive at the airport in Bogota last spring.
Migration statistics show that around 56,000 Africans passed via Colombia in 2023. While prior year’s data was not made available by the authorities, immigrant organizations assert that the figure from last year reflects a significant increase mostly due to migration.
While traveling through a hostile jungle is riskier than flying, migrants reaching Bogota’s airport have also encountered hardships.
A few have been forced to wait days after arriving for scheduled connecting flights. Others have found themselves stranded upon learning that El Salvador, the next destination on their schedule, levies a $1,130 transit tax on individuals from Africa.
The airport does not provide beds or showers for migrants. Expensive cafeterias sell only food and water.
Influenza outbreaks have occurred. A laboring woman went into labor. Two African youngsters who had been abandoned by someone other than their parents were discovered in a restroom in December.
Garcia stated that people at the airport in between flights were the responsibility of the airlines, not the government. He claimed that private businesses were failing to fulfill their obligations. He remarked, “They are leaving passengers delayed at airports for the sake of enrichment.”
The Colombian airline Avianca, which flies migrants from Africa to Nicaragua on a number of its routes, stated that it must carry people who fulfill the necessary travel conditions.
Most of the time, migrants at Bogota’s airport are kept hidden from view of other travelers.
The 40-year-old journalist Mouhamed Diallo, who taught university courses in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, claimed he had to wait two days in the arrivals area before being permitted to board his subsequent aircraft, which was scheduled to depart for San Salvador, El Salvador.
He said, “I discovered someone who departed yesterday.” “I had spent twelve days there.”
Like Diallo, many African travelers on this route are well-educated professionals whose relatives live in Europe and the United States and who assist with their travel expenses.
After the military takeover, Diallo claimed he felt uneasy and decided to leave Guinea. Being a Fulani, who make up the predominant ethnic group in the nation, he backed an opposition leader who was living in exile.
“You come out if your leader comes out,” he declared. “You go to prison if you don’t.”
A few migrants are currently stranded at the airport.
Former Sierra Leonean police officer Kanja Jabbie claimed he paid $10,000 to get to Nicaragua. However, it wasn’t until he got to Colombia that he learned about the transit fee that El Salvador had requested.
I had nowhere to get cash and none at all. Not even an ATM is available at the terminal to accept remittances.
Airlines in Bogota have stated that the payment that El Salvador imposed last fall, which it has dubbed the “airport improvement charge,” is one of the primary reasons behind the traffic bottleneck at the airport. Additionally, Nicaragua offers reduced fees to visitors from Africa. A request for comments was not answered by either government.
There are a lot of migrants in the vicinity of gate A9, which is where the daily flights to San Salvador depart.
Wearing blankets from airplanes, people sleep in corners or kneel in Muslim prayer. Soiled clothing is hung from luggage.
When a pregnant woman from Guinea sat at the gate one afternoon in January, he showed her a picture of his severely battered face and rolled up his sleeves to reveal a scar.
“My goal is to preserve both my own and my child’s lives. The woman stated, “I’m hiding from my husband,” pleading for her safety to only be recognized by her first initial, T. “My goal is to reach the United States.”
It had taken him four days to get to Bogota. That same day, she was supposed to board an Avianca flight to El Salvador, but she was removed.
“I have no idea why,” he said.
Passengers occasionally complained about refugees who had not been able to take a shower for days, according to airport and airline staff who claimed they were not allowed to talk in public.
The company’s logo, “The sky belongs to everyone,” will be repeated by Avianca’s cabin attendants in response.
Airlines reported that after being detained in cramped conditions, migrants frequently become ill, and some even show signs of weakness. A man from Mauritius passed away following a heart attack on a flight from Madrid to Bogota in the spring of last year.
Colombian officials have been more forceful since the two immigrant children were left behind at the airport in December.
Airlines are under pressure from Colombian authorities to only allow passengers who have a connecting flight within 24 hours on board, and they are forced to confirm that youngsters are flying with adults who are their parents.
Additionally, migrants whose tickets have expired, those who spend more than a day at the airport, and those who originate from the few African nations from which Colombia still requires a transit visa have started to be detained by immigration officers. They are placed on planes for their return to Istanbul.
Among them was Jabbie, the police officer from Sierra Leone.
One or more of the episodes got violent. Three Cameroonian women fought earlier this month when immigration and police officers carried them screaming through the airport and repeatedly shocked them with Tasers, according to them.
“They threw us on the plane after we fainted,” 29-year-old Agnes Foncha Malung claimed.
Malung, who makes a profession by braiding hair, said that she and two friends made the decision to flee Cameroon after fighting broke out and destroyed the homes of relatives.
Before being deported, the women were detained for several days at the airport in Bogota due to what immigration officials claimed to be visa problems.
Malung said over the phone from Cameroon that the three were sharing a rented room as they made plans for what to do next.
He declared that the excursion had cost him $11,500. He answered, “It cost me a lot.”
Requests for comments on the incident were repeatedly ignored by the migration officials.
Nonetheless, a large number of African immigrants have succeeded in reaching the US. On a chilly January day, journalist Diallo arrived to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the city’s seventh airport in 17 days.
He claimed that after traveling through Mexico and Central America in the cars of smugglers, he spent the entire night in Arizona shivering until the U.S. Border Patrol picked him up and he filed an asylum application.
He went to the Bronx to see his brother again after being freed and given a date for an immigration court hearing. He claimed to have been helping out in his tent and staying in his small flat.
When asked if he would lead his spouse and kids in the same direction, Diallo said, “No, never.”
Never in my lifetime, he stated “I experienced trauma.”