The discovery of two minors from Guinea this week at Bogota's El Dorado International Airport has brought a new African migrant flight route to the United States into the spotlight of media attention. However, the Colombian Foreign Ministry pointed out this Thursday that images of large groups of migrants in the waiting rooms of the terminal should not be overstated. “What we are seeing is not necessarily a migration crisis, but rather traffic jams due to connections that are too long,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy in a press conference. According to the official, a large part of the problem is that Turkish Airlines does not check whether travelers meet the requirements for onward travel after transiting through Colombia.
According to the State Department, African migrants arrive daily on Avianca flights from Spain and Turkish Airlines flights from Istanbul. They typically stay in the international areas of the airport without migrating in-country while they wait for flights to Central America to escape the dangers of the Darien jungle. The problem is that connections can be delayed by several hours – beyond the 24 hours allowed by the visa – and that about 10% of migrants are denied boarding on flights to El Salvador because they do not pay a $1,130 fee have paid. that the Central American country has been demanding them for several months. They remain stranded for several hours until they are returned to their origin airports.
In particular, Coy has accused Turkish Airways of failing to check whether its passengers had paid the fare that would allow them to travel to Central America before boarding to Bogotá. He reiterates that Avianca, which offers flights to El Salvador, takes control from the point of origin. “Turkey says that it is their duty to bring the passengers to Bogotá and that what they do later is not their responsibility,” complained the Vice Chancellor. A later statement said the government will continue discussions with Turkey while strengthening Aerocivil's regulatory compliance controls.
The Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy said during the press conference that he offered this Thursday in the Chancellery
Visa exemption
The State Department also responded to criticism that the cause of the increased influx of migrants was a May resolution exempting nationals of several African countries from transit visas. “There is not necessarily a connection with the increase in the population of these nationalities. There is no evidence,” said Coy, a career civil servant who has worked with governments of various tendencies. However, the deputy minister acknowledged that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering reintroducing the requirement to obtain these permits and that “the lists [de exenciones] They are neither fixed nor final.”
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The resolution to lift the visa waiver covered nine African countries, including Guinea, the country of origin of the two children found this week. According to the ministry, the decision has been under consideration since October 2022, as these were countries where a large number of violations were not recorded. The Vice Chancellor emphasized that this had no relation to the trip to Africa in May of Vice President Francia Márquez, who in recent days has been the target of attacks on social networks on this issue.
When asked by this newspaper about the figures for the new migration route, Coy limited himself to ensuring that the State Department did not have figures “showing an explosive increase in migration”. According to the official, the route became more visible in early November when El Salvador implemented its new tariff and several migrants unexpectedly found themselves stranded in El Dorado.
The Vice Chancellor also noted that the new dynamics occur in the context of “increasing migration flows” around the world and an increasing number of people using routes such as the Darién. His statements are consistent with those of the director of Migration Colombia, Fernando García, who stressed on W radio on Wednesday that the majority of migrants come from Latin America and Asia and that there is a background that goes beyond the government's decisions. “The visa issue has nothing to do with it. The economic, social, political and violent crises affecting various countries play a fundamental role. When these countries became victims of interventions by northern countries, these migration processes increased,” García said.
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