Suspected Smuggling Ring Interrupted after France Detains Plane on Stop-Over to Nicaragua
FAIR Take | January 2024
Four days before Christmas, a plane with over 300 Indian nationals was detained in France on suspicion of human trafficking. The unmarked plane, owned the Romanian company Legend Airlines, was flying from India to Nicaragua via the United Arab Emirates and stopped to refuel at Vatry, a small regional airport near Paris. This flight pattern seemed unusual, and following a tipoff that the plane was trafficking migrants, French authorities grounded the plane.
The plane was held for four days while the French government conducted an investigation. The passengers on board the plane consisted of families and children, some of whom were unaccompanied. During the first day, passengers remained on the plane, but for the remaining three days, they were allowed to stay in the airport terminal. On Christmas Eve, French authorities allowed the plane to return to India, but not before 27 of the passengers claimed asylum in France. Two passengers were detained as part of an investigation into organized human trafficking.
An attorney for Legend Airlines told the Associated Press that it is cooperating with French authorities and denied any role in human trafficking. The lawyer said that the company that chartered the plane from Legend Airlines was responsible for verifying the identity documents of each passenger, and communicated their passport information to the airline 48 hours before the flight. She added that the same company had chartered multiple flights on Legend Airlines from the UAE to Nicaragua, which had made the journey without incident.
Nicaragua, one of the poorest and most authoritarian regimes in the Americas, has recently become a popular stepping stone to the U.S. for nationals from outside of the Americas. The main reason is that it is easy to get there. Nicaragua has a visa regime that is extremely relaxed, making it attractive to nationalities with passports from countries that are poor or considered corrupt or dangerous. There are 91 countries whose passport holders can enter Nicaragua visa free. In addition, passport holders of 74 other countries can obtain a visa on arrival, with no need to apply in advance or be pre-vetted. Some of the countries on this list include incredibly poor African and Asian countries. Migrants arriving in Nicaragua are often handed receipts on scrap paper, and their passports are not always even stamped. And, since Nicaragua is north of the much-feared Darien Gap, migrants from across the globe seek to enter Nicaragua so they don’t have to travel through the Gap on their way to the U.S. border. Ecuador has a similarly loose visa regime, but does not have the selling point of being north of the Darien Gap.
There could be several reasons why Nicaragua has such loose visa requirements. In part, it could be an attempt to attract foreign tourists and foreign currency. While not exactly an attractive tourist destination, Nicaragua can make money from landing fees and the charges related to visa-on-arrival passengers. Indeed, the Nicaraguan government is reportedly earning $4 million from migrants, and $1 million per month from aircraft landing fees.
In addition to bringing in money, it may also be related to geo-politics. Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is viscerally anti-American and has relationships with sworn enemies of the U.S., such as Iran, Russia and China. States with limited strategic power such as Nicaragua, could be using “instrumentalized migration” against the U.S., similar to how this is being done by Russia and its allies against NATO. This refers to pushing migrants towards rival states with the intention of destabilizing and undermining them. Nicaragua may be allowing itself to be used as a stepping stone so as to allow destabilizing mass waves of migrants to head toward the U.S.
Indeed, the impact of these new smuggling routes is serious and growing. During 2023, the number of African and Asian migrants encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border tripled over 2022, with over 200,000 apprehended by CBP agents. The number of Indians encountered illegally crossing into the U.S., at both the northern and southern borders, has increased five-fold since 2020, with over 97,000 encounters in FY 2023 alone. Sadly, the Biden Administration could eliminate these smuggling routes if it actually stopped the flow of illegal traffic across our borders. Migrants would pay smugglers such exorbitant fees if they could not cross into the U.S., and these smuggling routes would eventually dry up for lack of demand.