The detention of a plane with 300 passengers in France reveals a human trafficking network taking a new route to smuggle them through Central America
A plane booked by France before Christmas with more than 300 passengers suspected of being illegal immigrants on board has uncovered a human trafficking network taking a new route to the United States through Central America.
The Airbus A340 of the Romanian airline legend Airlines was stopped on December 21 when it landed at a small airport east of Paris to refuel after taking off from Dubai bound for Managua, on suspicion of "human trafficking".
Last Monday, 276 Indian passengers were returned to Bombay, while 27 people were kept in France, including two suspected migrant smugglers, and appeared before a Parisian investigating judge.
Indian police have opened an investigation into the case, and a commissioner told AFP that the passengers apparently paid tens of thousands of dollars to smugglers in order to take them to the United States.
Pre-designed work
Manuel Orozo, a migration specialist at the Inter-American Dialogue Studies Group, explained that the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who considers the United States an "enemy," facilitated the establishment of an "international air service network" so that migrants could "get faster to the Mexico-US border" using Nicaragua as a transit route. This work was considered "pre-designed" with the aim of "increasing the impact of the immigration crisis on the United States and reaping revenues" by granting visas and charging fees at airports. "We have collected data on more than 500 charter flights," he said, noting that the Airports Authority itself has signed a contract "with private companies based in Dubai to train government employees to handle international documents".
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko confirmed that Indian citizens "were going to get visas at Managua airport, and Nicaragua approved the list of passengers before boarding the plane, pursuant to the provisions of immigration procedures". She explained that without this approval, "the plane would not have been able to obtain permission to land in Nicaragua, and therefore to take off" from Dubai.
The number of Asian and African migrants arriving in Honduras through its border with Nicaragua has increased more than fivefold, rising from 14,569 migrants in 2022 to 76,178 migrants in 2023, an increase of 522 percent.
The migrants then move to Guatemala to enter Mexico from there to the southern border of the United States, in exchange for paying thousands of dollars to New smugglers.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted a "significant trend" among African and Cuban migrants seeking to reach the United States, towards choosing "air routes to Central America while avoiding crossing the Darien," a jungle area between Colombia and Panama.
Perilous borders
In recent years, Cubans, Haitians, Chinese, Vietnamese and Africans have joined the wave of Venezuelans crossing these perilous natural borders, facing human trafficking networks operating in them and the harsh natural factors in the jungles described as"hell" for migrants.
More than half a million migrants have taken the 266-kilometer route this year, more than double the number in 2022.
Manuel Orozco said that since 2021, Nicaragua has become a springboard to the United States for Cubans and Haitians who do not have to obtain a visa.
An average of 50 charter flights crossed every month between Havana and Managua from January to October 2023, while the number of flights from Port-au-Prince increased from 30 flights in August to 100 in September, and then 130 in October, according to the figures of the group "Inter-American Dialogue".
A spokesman for the General Directorate of migration in El Salvador explained that San Salvador is a transit center in Central America for migrants arriving on commercial flights to Nicaragua, similar to Panama, which is an international migration center.
Last October, El Salvador imposed a fee of 1,130 dollars on African and Indian citizens to transit its airports and ports, which Costa Rica and Panama have done before.
Colombian authorities have noted in recent months that the majority of passengers on flights from Turkey are Africans on their way to San Salvador, from where they head to Nicaragua.
"They are people who have resources and are determined to migrate, paying for travel cards and other things to avoid crossing the Darien region,"Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy said this week.
