As record numbers of people cross into the United States, the southern border isn’t the only place the migration crisis is occurring.
Nearly three thousand miles south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants pour in every day, paying smugglers about $10,000 for air packages they hope will help them reach the United States.
The wave of African migrants at Bogota airport, which began last year, is a vivid example of the impact of one of the largest global movements of people in recent decades and how it is changing migration patterns.
With some African countries facing economic crises and political upheaval and Europe cracking down on immigration, many more Africans are taking a much longer journey to the U.S.
Migrants in Bogota come mainly from West African countries such as Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, although some come from as far east as Somalia.
They are headed to Nicaragua, the only country in Central America where citizens of many African nations – and Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela – can enter without visas. 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 take a journey with several stops, flying to hubs like Istanbul, then to Colombia, where many fly to El Salvador and then on to Nicaragua. (There are no direct flights between Colombia and Nicaragua.) Once there, they head north again, overland, toward Mexico and the U.S. border.
The trip, which has been called “the luxury route” by airline employees, bypasses the dangerous jungle pass connecting South and North America called the Darién Gap.
Last year, 60,000 Africans entered Mexico on their journey to the United States, compared to fewer than 7,000 a year earlier, Mexican authorities said. (Overall crossings at the southern border declined earlier this year, but backslides like these are not uncommon and can be affected by season and other factors.)
Among those who disembarked recently 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 of a military coup in 2021 had thrown the country into crisis.
He had seen the transatlantic trip advertised on social media, he said, and thought, “I want to try it.”
A daily flight from Istanbul to Bogota on Turkish Airlines has become the most popular route for African migrants trying to reach Nicaragua, airline officials say. But other transatlantic routes – from Spain and Morocco, with stops in Colombia or Brazil – have also seen a boom. Officials say travel agents in Africa buy tickets in large quantities which they then resell at a profit.
They advertise online, even in WhatsApp groups like the one in Guinea with thousands of members called “Let’s leave the country”.
Colombia’s immigration director, Carlos Fernando García, said large numbers of Africans began arriving at Bogota’s airport last spring after the government suspended transit visa requirements for citizens of several African countries to stimulate tourism.
According to migration data, in 2023, more than 56,000 people from Africa passed through Colombia. Authorities do not provide data for previous years, but immigrant groups say last year’s figure is a huge increase and is fueled mainly by migrants.
Although flying is less dangerous than crossing a brutal jungle, migrants at Bogota’s airport also faced difficult trials.
Some had to wait for connecting flights scheduled days after their arrival. Others were left stranded after discovering that El Salvador, the next country on their itinerary, charges people from Africa a transit fee of $1,130.
The airport does not have beds or showers for migrants. The only food and water are sold in expensive bars.
There have been flu epidemics. 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.
Mr. García said airlines are responsible for passengers at the government airport between flights, not them. “It’s the private companies that don’t do their duty,” he said, “in their haste to make money, they leave passengers stranded.”
Turkish Airlines did not respond to a request for comment.
Avianca, a Colombian airline that operates on several routes used by African migrants heading to Nicaragua, said it is obligated to carry passengers who meet travel requirements.
At Bogota’s airport, migrants are largely kept out of sight 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 admitted to the departures section on the day of his next flight – to San Salvador , El Salvador.
“I found someone who left yesterday,” he said. “He was there for 12 days.”
Many Africans who use this route are educated professionals like Mr. Diallo with brothers in the United States and Europe who help them pay for tickets.
Mr. Diallo said he left Guinea because he felt insecure after the military coup. He is Fulani, the country’s majority ethnic group, and supported an opposition leader who had gone into exile, he said.
“Your leader goes out, you go out,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll go to prison.”
Some migrants found themselves trapped at the airport.
Kanja Jabbie, a former Sierra Leone police officer, said he paid $10,000 to travel to Nicaragua. But he learned about the transit fee required by El Salvador only after he arrived in Colombia.
He had no cash, he said, and there was no way to get it. There is no place to receive funds wired into the terminal, or even into an ATM
“I’m stuck,” said Mr Jabbie, 46, who spent three days wandering the terminal, surviving on tea.
The tax, which El Salvador imposed last fall, calling it an “airport improvement tax,” was a major cause of the passenger backlog at Bogota’s airport, according to airline officials. Nicaragua also charges a smaller tax for people from Africa. Neither government responded to a request for comment.
The area around Gate A9, where daily flights to San Salvador depart, is full of migrants.
People sleep in a corner, or kneel in Muslim prayer, using airplane blankets. The laundry is hanging in the luggage.
A pregnant woman from Guinea sat at the gate one afternoon in January. When asked why she had left, she produced a photo showing her severely beaten face. She pulled back 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 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 turned away.
“I don’t know why,” he said.
Airport and airline employees who said they were not authorized to speak publicly said passengers sometimes complained about migrants not being able to wash themselves for days.
In response, Avianca cabin crew will repeat the company’s motto: “The sky belongs to everyone.”
Migrants often fall ill after being stuck in confined spaces, airline workers said, and some appear frail. Last spring, on a flight from Madrid to Bogota, a man originally from Mauritania died of a heart attack.
Since December, when the two migrant children were dropped off at the airport, Colombian authorities have taken a tougher stance.
Airlines are required to verify that children are traveling with adults who are their parents, and Colombian authorities are pushing to only let people on board who have a connecting flight within 24 hours.
Immigration agents have also begun rounding up migrants whose tickets have expired, who are staying at the airport for more than a day or who come from a handful of African countries for which Colombia still requires a transit visa. They’re putting them on flights back to Istanbul.
Among them was Mr. Jabbie, the Sierra Leone policeman.
At least one incident turned violent. This month, three Cameroonian women resisted and were dragged screaming through the airport by immigration officers and police and shocked repeatedly with a Taser, they said.
“When we collapsed, they put us on the plane,” said Agnes Foncha Malung, 29.
Ms. Malung, who braids hair for a living, decided to leave her homeland with two friends, she said, after some relatives’ homes were burned during clashes between Anglophone and Francophone factions in Cameroon.
The women were held at Bogota’s airport for several days over what immigration authorities told them were visa issues before they were deported.
Ms. Malung, speaking by phone from Cameroon, said the three were sharing a rented room until they decided on their next move.
He said he paid $11,500 for the trip. “It cost me a lot,” she said.
Immigration authorities did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the incident.
However, many African migrants have managed to reach the United States. Mr. Diallo, the journalist, arrived at La Guardia Airport in New York–his ninth airport in 17 days–on a cold January day.
He had traveled through Central America and Mexico in smugglers’ vehicles, he said, and sat shivering all night in Arizona before he was picked up by U.S. Border Patrol and requested asylum.
After being released with an immigration court date, he traveled to the Bronx to join his brother. He stays in his cramped apartment, he said, and helps out in his convenience store.
Asked whether he would send his wife and children down the same path, Mr. Diallo said: “No, never.”
“Never in my life,” he added. “I have trauma.”
Reporting contribution was provided by Genevieve Glatsky AND Federico Rios from Bogota, Colombia; Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal; Mady Camara from Dakar, Senegal; AND Safak Timur from Istanbul. Simone Posada contributed research from Bogota.
