In late December last year, an Airbus A340 bound for Nicaragua was detained in France over concerns that it was of a human trafficking scheme. Operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines, the aircraft was held at Vatry airport, east of Paris, where it had stopped for refuelling. It had arrived from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and had 303 passengers of Indian nationality. Eleven accompanied minors were among the passengers.
The passengers were investigated by French authorities for days.
Of the 303 passengers, 276 came back to Mumbai last week. Earlier, this was suspected to be a case of human trafficking. However, a report by The Guardian on Monday (Jan 1) said that the passengers were not being trafficked against their will but were rather attempting to migrate to the United States.
This case has brought back the focus on Nicaragua’s role in the migrant crisis in the US.
The past and the present
Nicaragua is the closest country connected by land to the US that does not impose strict entry requirements upon citizens of many countries who are not permitted to fly to other destinations without a visa, the report said.
Citing experts, the report said that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has taken a contrarian approach in an attempt to weaponise migration and force negotiations over US sanctions imposed on members of his inner circle in 2020.
Speaking to the publication, Ana María Méndez, the director for Central America at the Washington Office on Latin America, said, “Ortega is being very astute by playing with what hurts the United States the most.”
In 2014, Nicaragua imposed visa requirements on Cuban citizens to help stem the flow of migrants heading to the American border. However, since then, the relations between the two countries deteriorated due to Ortega’s rigging of the 2021 election as he sought a fourth consecutive term.
Ortega rescinded visa requirements for Cuban citizens following political upheaval in Cuba in 2021. Méndez said that charter flights from the island started soon after as an “escape valve” for the Cuban government which preferred citizens leave rather than protest in the streets.
People from other countries including Haiti also followed suit to shorten their journey to the US. The report further said that on Oct 30 last year, Haiti imposed a ban on charter flights to Nicaragua which led to a significant drop in the number of people travelling to the Central American country.
US announces visa restriction policy
Nearly a month after Haiti imposed a ban on such flights, the US State Department announced a visa restriction policy targeting individuals running charter flights into Nicaragua designed primarily for irregular migrants.
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“In a growing trend, charter flight companies have been offering flights—and charging extortion-level prices—that put migrants onto a dangerous overland path north to the US border. Many of these migrants lack a legal basis for entering or remaining in the United States and are often returned to their home countries, having wasted significant personal resources and put themselves and their families at risk,” a statement from the State Department on Nov 21 said.
The report also said that several charter companies stopped flights after Washington’s directive but some didn’t including Legend Airlines.
Passengers paid huge sums of money to reach US
Speaking to the news agency AFP, a police official from the Indian state of Gujarat said that Indian passengers aboard the Legend Airlines flight to Nicaragua paid millions of rupees to agents to help them reach the US.
Passengers had paid “four million to 12.5 million rupees” ($48,000-150,000) to agents to help them reach the southern border of the United States from South America, Gujarat state police superintendent Sanjay Kharat said last week.
“We want to know how these people came in contact with the agents, or whether the agents contacted them, and what their plan was after reaching Nicaragua,” he added.
Kharat said that of the 276 passengers who returned to India, 66 were from Gujarat. “We have identified people who could give us some information into the illegal racket and they are being questioned,” the police official further told the news agency.
The other Indian passengers were from Punjab, where police said an investigation was on.
French authorities are continuing to investigate the case for a potential violation of immigration laws but no longer for people trafficking, judicial sources told AFP.
(With inputs from agencies)
