EPAMigrants walk towards the Mexico-US border in late December 2023.
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:40
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Eva de Vries
Foreign editor
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Eva de Vries
Foreign editor
More and more migrants are using Nicaragua as a springboard for their journey to the United States and Canada. In 2023, tens of thousands of people from India, Afghanistan and Senegal, among others, landed there to join the migrant caravan north.
According to Nicaragua expert and migration expert Manuel Orozco of the think tank Inter-American Dialogue, the increase in the number of migrants is due to the relaxation of visa rules and the admission of additional charter flights. “Nicaragua makes a lot of money from this, but more importantly: the country wants to thwart arch-rival America, which is absolutely not interested in even more migrants.”
Previously, migrants flew from other continents to other countries in South America. The route via Nicaragua saves them the infamous journey through the Darién Gap, a difficult area on the border of Panama and Colombia.
NOSMigrants from more and more countries travel to Nicaragua and continue their journey from there
People all over the world want to leave their countries because of war, climate change, political circumstances or lack of economic opportunities. “For many, this is an unknown route to a possibly better life, where at least they do not have to cross the Mediterranean in a shaky boat,” says Orozco.
Since 2020, it has become a lot easier to enter Nicaragua legally, without high costs or complicated procedures. “Relaxations have also been implemented in recent months,” says Orozco. For example, migrants from India, Afghanistan, SenegalGuinea and Angola can buy a tourist visa for around 100 euros upon arrival in the capital Managua.
Charter flights
To make it even easier for migrants, dictatorial President Daniel Ortega started working with travel organizations and charter companies in April 2023, which offer flights outside the timetable. “He made more than 500 charter flights possible,” says Orozco. “So it concerns tens of thousands of people.”
All kinds of companies are taking advantage of this in business terms. In India, ‘package holidays’ are offered, including a flight, visas and a bus ride to the American border. For an Indian who is the so-called ‘donkey route‘ to Nicaragua, the costs run into tens of thousands of euros. From Managua, migrants travel via Honduras and Guatemala via Mexico to the US border.
According to the US Border Patrol, nearly 97,000 Indians were arrested trying to enter the US illegally between October 2022 and September 2023. After Mexicans and Salvadorans, the Indians are the largest illegal group, with a total estimated at approx 725,000 people.
Watch this video as Indians try to reach the US via Nicaragua:
More and more Indians are coming to the US illegally, why are they traveling via Nicaragua?
‘The American dream still exists’, with these types of texts ‘travel providers’ advertise their trips online. It is teeming with migrants who record their trip on Instagram, YouTubeof TikTok and give advice to their followers. Because even though this route does not run straight through the Darién, it is still dangerous. For example, in August a bus full of migrants fell into a ravine Mexicowhich killed eighteen people.
Weaken
Nicaragua benefits from this flow of migrants, says Orozco. “Ortega is doing good business,” said the migration expert. “It creates problems for the US, which is already facing a massive migration crisis.” According to him, Ortega wants to destabilize the US and weaken it internally. “He actually uses migration as a weapon to attack the US. At the same time, he makes money from it.”
“Ortega wants to take revenge because of the sanctions,” Orozco explains. In 2022, the US introduced a new sanctions package that blocks American investments in, for example, gold mining. The US government wants Nicaragua to restore democracy. The country is run in an extremely repressive manner and many opposition supporters, church leaders, business people and journalists are behind bars or have left the country turned off.
US correspondent Marieke de Vries:
“Every day, thousands of migrants cross the US border illegally, often via river, through barbed wire or climbing over fences. Most are picked up by Border Patrol agents and taken to detention centers, where they must wait before they can apply for asylum. If they do not qualify, they will be returned.
These centers are overcrowded, many people sleep on the streets in border cities or are put on buses north to cities like New York or Chicago, where they can no longer handle the number of immigrants. There is a real emergency, but stricter asylum measures, expansion of detention centers or deportations, as the Biden administration wants, have not yet passed Congress.”
“Because the situation at the US border is so dire, there is now more and more attention to it,” says Orozco. He thinks that this cannot continue for long and that the charter flights will soon come to an end, due to international pressure on Ortega.
Ultimately, the US will also try to further curb migration, thinks Orozco, who points out that migration is an important theme in the campaign towards the presidential elections at the end of this year.
2024-01-07 18:40:00
#Nicaragua #President #Ortega #migration #weapon
