PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Across the street from the departure terminal at Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Haiti’s gang-plagued capital, hundreds of anxious travelers spill out onto the road from an overflowing parking lot, listening for their Nicaragua-bound flight to be called.
As ticket agents in white shirts walk through the chaotic crowd, there is chatter about how many days some have been camping out and the desperation driving them to Managua, the new migration springboard for migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
“There is nowhere that is simple,” one young man says as he explains to another traveler the winding itinerary to the U.S.-Mexico border after arriving at Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport in the Nicaraguan capital, where guides and traffickers offer passage north. “There are some small cars like taxis. If you want you can take them or get on one of the big buses to Honduras, and after Honduras you take another one … to the Guatemalan border.”
Until recently, Haitians and other U.S.-bound migrants making their way through Central America were stranded in Costa Rica, sometimes for months, because Nicaragua, the next stop on the route, banned them from entering the country.