Shortly after midnight on May 18, a Boeing 777 operated by Libyan airline Ghadames Air took off from Benina International Airport in Benghazi and landed 14 hours later in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. According to Nicaraguan TV channel 100% Noticias, the flight carried 367 Indian passengers. On May 23, the same aircraft repeated the journey with 298 Indians on board. All passengers intended to continue to the US.
Earlier flights from Tripoli, Libya’s capital, on February 28 and March 14 carried undisclosed passengers. Nicaraguan authorities did not respond to Le Monde’s inquiries about what seems to be a new route for undocumented immigrants heading to the US.
While there’s no official confirmation of these flights, Managua’s Augusto C. Sandino International Airport is recognized as a key transit point for immigrants to the US. In December 2023, a plane with over 300 Indians was grounded at Paris-Vatry Airport on suspicion of human trafficking during a stopover between Dubai and Managua.
Since 2021, Nicaragua has allowed nationals from politically troubled countries to enter without a visa in exchange for payment on arrival, explained Manuel Orozco, a migration expert at The Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank. According to Orozco, 1,145 charter flights have landed in Managua since May 2023, mainly from Latin America, Casablanca, and recently, Benghazi.