As record numbers of people cross into the United States, the southern border is not the only place where the immigration crisis is unfolding.
Nearly three thousand miles south, inside Colombia’s main international airport, hundreds of African migrants pour in every day, paying traffickers about $10,000 for package flights they hope will help them reach the United States.
The surge of African migrants at Bogota’s 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 changing migration patterns.
With some African countries facing economic crisis and political unrest, and Europe cracking down on immigration, many more Africans are making the much longer journey to the US
Immigrants to Bogotá are mainly from West African countries such as Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, although some come from as far east as Somalia.
They are bound for Nicaragua, the only country in Central America where citizens from several African nations — and from 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 on his authoritarian government.
To reach Nicaragua, migrants embark on a multi-stop journey, flying to hubs such as 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, to Mexico and the US border.
The trip, which airline officials call “the luxury route,” bypasses the dangerous jungle passage connecting South and North America called the Darién Gap.
Last year, 60,000 Africans entered Mexico on their way to the United States, down from fewer than 7,000 the year before, Mexican authorities said. (Total southern border crossings declined earlier this year, but ebbs like these are not uncommon and can be affected by season and other factors.)
Among those who disembarked at Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport on a flight from Istanbul recently 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.
He had seen the transatlantic trip advertised on social media, he said, and thought, “I want to try it.”
A daily Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Bogota 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 – are also booming. Officials say tour operators in Africa buy tickets in bulk which they resell at a profit.
They are advertised online, including on WhatsApp groups, such as one in Guinea with thousands of members called “Let’s Leave the Country”.
Colombia’s immigration director, Carlos Fernando Garcia, said large numbers of Africans began showing up at Bogota’s airport last spring after the government suspended transit visa requirements for citizens of several African countries to boost tourism.
In 2023, more than 56,000 people from Africa passed through Colombia, according to immigration data. Authorities would not provide figures from previous years, but migrant groups say last year’s number is a huge increase and is fueled mainly by migrants.
While flying is less dangerous than traversing a brutal jungle, migrants at Bogotá airport have also faced trials.
Some had to wait for scheduled connecting flights days after their arrival. Others have been banned after discovering that El Salvador, the next country on their itinerary, charges people from Africa $1,130 in transit fees.
The airport has no beds or showers for migrants. The only food and water is sold in expensive cafes.
There have been cases of influenza. A woman went into labor. In December, two children from Africa were found in a bathroom after being abandoned by travelers who were not their parents.
Mr Garcia said the airlines were responsible for passengers at the airport between flights, not the government. “It is the private companies that are failing in their duty,” he said, “in their rush to make money, they are 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 bound for Nicaragua, said it was obliged to carry passengers who met the travel requirements.
At Bogotá airport, migrants are largely kept away from other passengers.
Mouhamed Diallo, 40, a journalist who taught university courses in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, said he had spent two days in the arrivals area before being allowed into 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 12 days.”
Many Africans who use this route are educated professionals like Mr. Diallo with siblings in the United States and Europe who help pay for their tickets.
Mr. Diallo said he left Guinea because he felt unsafe after the military coup. They are Fulani, the majority ethnic group in the country, and supported an exiled opposition leader, he said.
“Your chief get out, you go,” he said. “If you don’t, you end up in jail.”
Some migrants were trapped at the airport.
Kanja Jabbie, a former police officer from Sierra Leone, said he paid $10,000 to travel to Nicaragua. But he learned about the transit fees required by El Salvador only after he arrived in Colombia.
He had no cash, he said, and no way to get it. There is no place to get wired funds in the terminal, not even an ATM
“I’m stuck,” said Mr Jabi, 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 the main cause of passenger congestion at Bogota’s 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 to San Salvador depart, is full of migrants.
People sleep in a corner or kneel in Muslim prayer, using airplane blankets. The washing machine hangs in the luggage.
A pregnant woman from Guinea sat at the gate one afternoon in January. When asked why she left, she produced a photo showing her face, badly beaten. He pulled up a sleeve to reveal a scar.
“I’m here to save my life – my life and my baby’s. I’m hiding from my husband,” said the woman, who asked to be followed by only her first initial, T, for her safety. “I hope I can make it to the US”
He had arrived in Bogotá four days before. Her Avianca flight to El Salvador left that day, but she was missed.
“I don’t know why,” he said.
Airport and airline officials who said they were not authorized to speak publicly said passengers sometimes complained about migrants who could not shower for days.
In response, Avianca’s cabin crew will repeat the company’s motto: “The sky belongs to everyone.”
Migrants often get sick after being stuck in close proximity, airline workers said, and some appear frail. Last spring, on a flight from Madrid to Bogota, a Mauritanian man died of a heart attack.
Since December, when the two migrant children were left behind 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 them to allow boarding only to people who have a connecting flight within 24 hours.
Immigration officers have also begun rounding up migrants whose tickets have expired, who stay at the airport for more than a day, or who come from some African countries from which Colombia still requires transit visas. They put them on flights back to Istanbul.
Mr. Jabi, the policeman from Sierra Leone, was among them.
At least one episode turned violent. This month, three Cameroonian women resisted and were dragged screaming through the airport by immigration officers and police and repeatedly Tasered, they said.
“When we collapse, they put us on the plane,” said Agnes Foncha Malung, 29.
Ms Malung, who braids her hair for a living, decided to flee her homeland with two friends, she said, after some relatives’ houses were burnt down amid clashes between Anglophone and French-speaking factions in Cameroon.
The women were held at Bogotá airport for several days because immigration officials told them it was a visa issue before being deported.
Ms. Malung, speaking by phone from Cameroon, said the three were sharing a rented room until they could figure out their next move.
He said he paid $11,500 for the trip. “It cost me a lot,” he said.
Immigration authorities did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the incident.
However, many African immigrants have managed to reach the United States. Mr. Diallo, the journalist, arrived at New York’s La Guardia Airport – 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 overnight in Arizona before the US Border Patrol picked him up and claimed asylum.
After being released from jail with an immigration court date, he traveled to the Bronx to join his brother. She lived in his cramped apartment, he said, and helped with his grocery.
Asked if he would send his wife and children on the same route, Mr. Diallo said: “No, never.”
“Never in my life,” he added. “I have an injury.”
The report was made by Genevieve Glatsky and Federico Rios from Bogota, Colombia. Ruth Maclean from Dakar, Senegal. Maddy Camara from Conakry, Guinea. and Shafak Timur from Instabul. Simon Posada contributed research from Bogota.
