Haitian migrants in front of a breach in the wall erected on the border between the United States and Mexico, in Yuma, Arizona, December 10, 2021 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives/JOHN MOORE)
The influx of Cuban and Haitian migrants into Nicaragua, from where they then try to reach the United States, has caused a sharp increase in charter flights to Managua in recent months, pushing Washington to impose sanctions on their operators.
Irma Perez, a 28-year-old Cuban, arrived on October 9 with her family in Managua aboard a charter flight of the Mexican company Viva Aerobus from Holguin, 700 km from Havana.
“We made a stopover in Cancun (Mexican port) for 45 minutes, without getting off the plane, and from there to Managua,” she told AFP from Mexico City where she then went with her husband and his son after paying for the services of a smuggler. She hopes to be able to enter the United States from there.
Several Cuban migrants interviewed by AFP said they had traveled with the same company, explaining that they were charter flights, chartered by small travel agencies.
The migration route from Central America to the United States (AFP/Tatiana MAGARINOS)
Questioned by AFP, Viva Aerobus did not respond, although on its site no flights are offered to connect Cuba to Nicaragua.
Irma Perez explained that she paid $1,250 for her ticket, the same for her husband and $350 for her one-year-old son, not counting the $2,100 paid to the smuggler.
– “Economic calculation” –
The appearance of charter flights to meet the needs of migrants “is a relatively new phenomenon”, explains to AFP Manuel Orozco, director of migration issues at the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington.
Nicaragua, an ally of Havana, has no longer required visas for Cubans since November 2021. Since then, 421,000 Cubans, a record, have entered the United States irregularly, according to official American figures, the vast majority by land route from Nicaragua.
At the same time and in the face of a growing influx, Panama and Costa Rica imposed a transit visa on them in early 2022. Charter flights then increased from Cuba to Nicaragua.
According to a report from the Inter-American Dialogue, a monthly average of 50 charter flights landed in Managua from Havana between January and October 2023, while this type of flights increased from 30 in August to 130 in October between Port-au-Prince and the capital of Nicaragua.
“Nicaragua has represented a bridge for nearly 100,000 people” migrants since January, assesses the report. Manuel Orozco believes that the operators of these lines and the Nicaraguan airport authorities have made “an economic calculation” for “mutual benefit”.
Small regular airlines have even joined this market.
Cuban migrants to the United States (AFP/Gustavo IZUS, Gabriela VAZ)
A 37-year-old Cuban accountant said he paid $1,800 in October for a flight with Aruba Airlines, whose web page offers ticket sales through a WhatsApp number. He traveled from Havana to Managua with a stopover in Aruba, a Dutch Caribbean island.
“I had to send the money to a friend in the United States and she was able to have the ticket issued,” he explained anonymously to AFP, on his way to Mexico before hoping to join him also the United States.
– “Family price” –
Advertisements abound on Facebook: “Tickets available Havana-Nicaragua (…) prices for families, charter and regular flights,” says one of them.
At the beginning of November, Brian Nichols, the US Deputy Secretary of State, expressed his concern about the “spectacular” increase in these flights, and on Tuesday Washington announced it was restricting visas for “owners, directors and managers” companies operating these flights.
However, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio recently assured that the number of flights had decreased. “This situation (…) is no longer the same,” he said.
At the end of October, Mexico in turn announced that it would impose a transit visa on Cubans at its airports, making charter routes more difficult, which have gradually diminished.
Haitian migrants to the United States (AFP/Gabriela VAZ, Gustavo IZUS)
A taxi driver from Managua, who consults the airport website every day for his work, told AFP anonymously that he had noticed that “22 to 23 daily planes with migrants (arrived) a few weeks ago , compared to six today.
Despite the American “Parole” program which aims to facilitate legal migration, the irregular arrival of Cubans and Haitians in the United States has seen a rebound since August. Between January and October, 108,000 Cubans and 165,000 Haitians arrived irregularly in the country. “The +Parole+ program does not cover migratory demand,” notes the expert from the Inter-American Dialogue.
© 2023 AFP
Did you like this article ? Share it with your friends using the buttons below.
