2 Guinean children are abandoned in Colombian airport as African migrants take new route to US

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Two children from the West African nation of Guinea were abandoned in Bogota’s airport and taken into government custody this week after spending several days on their own in the international departures terminal, Colombian authorities said Tuesday.

Colombia’s national immigration department said the children, aged 10 and 13, had been travelling with separate groups and were left in the airport by their relatives earlier this month for reasons that have not been clarified.

The discovery of the two children comes as migrants from Africa increasingly use South American and Central American airports as stepping stones on the long route to the United States.

Last year, more than 12,000 Africans crossed the roadless Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama on their way north after taking flights to Brazil, according to statistics published by Panamanian officials.

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But this year, the number of Africans making the grueling trek across the jungle fell by 25% as an air route that begins in Turkey and takes migrants to countries north of the Darien appears to have become more popular.

Colombian officials said the children found in Bogota’s airport this week had arrived on a direct flight from Istanbul and were planning to fly to El Salvador, from where migrants take connecting flights to Nicaragua, a country that allows people from most African nations to enter its territory without visas, after they pay a fine.

From Nicaragua, African migrants make their way overland to the United States, said Adam Isacson an immigration expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

“Human smuggling networks are discovering that there are new ways to skip the Darien, for those who can pay,” Isacson said. “And they will continue to look for routes, even if they are complicated.”

In September, the International Organization for Migration said Cubans and Africans are increasingly arriving on flights to Nicaragua before heading to the United States.

The organization noted that the number of Africans crossing the Darien dopped by 65% in the first semester of 2023, while 19,000 migrants from Africa arrived in Honduras through its southern border with Nicaragua, a 550% increase from 2022.

Colombia lifted transit visa requirements in May for citizens of several African nations, including Guinea, as the nation’s first leftist government seeks to improve relations with African countries.

But there is no direct flight from Colombia to Nicaragua, which means that migrants headed there, must first stop in El Salvador, which allows African migrants to pass through its airport after they pay a $1,000 fee.

The director of Colombia’s child welfare institute said late Tuesday that the families of the two children who were abandoned at the airport had been contacted.

She did not specify what country the families were in but added that it would take some time to reunite the children with them.