MEXICO CITY – El Salvador’s government has begun imposing a $1,130 fee on travellers from dozens of countries using the country’s main airport, under pressure from the United States to help control migration flows to its southern border.
Since the end of October, citizens of 57 mostly African countries and India have had to pay the fee, according to El Salvador’s aviation authority.
Aviation officials have not said whether the measure is aimed at reducing migration and have described the tariff as an “airport improvement fee”, but El Salvador’s government has acknowledged an increase in travellers from those countries this year. The US has also been pressuring Central American countries to stem migration flows to its border with Mexico. US authorities say they stopped migrants there more than 2 million times in the fiscal year that ended on 30 September.
El Salvador’s aviation authority said most of the passengers paying the fee were travelling to Nicaragua on the commercial airline Avianca. Because of its lax visa requirements, Nicaragua is a transit point for migrants from Haiti and Cuba, as well as Africa, trying to reach the US.
Earlier this year, for example, US officials were surprised by a surge in Mauritanian migrants arriving at the southern border. No natural disaster, coup or sudden economic collapse could explain it. Rather, travel agents and social media influencers were promoting a multi-leg journey that would take migrants from the West African country to Nicaragua.
A flight itinerary of a Senegalese migrant seen by The Associated Press showed the migrant passing through Morocco, Spain and El Salvador before landing in Managua. The last two legs were on Avianca flights.
El Salvador’s aviation and immigration authorities said they had no data on how many migrants from the listed countries had passed through the country this year.
A spokesman for the US embassy declined to say whether the US had demanded the fee. But being able to help the U.S. control migration could be a political boon for El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who is seeking re-election despite a constitutional ban and is under scrutiny for his human rights record.
During President Donald Trump’s administration, US policy towards El Salvador prioritised curbing migration above all else, and Bukele heard no public criticism from the US as he began to consolidate power. Under President Joe Biden, the US has been openly critical of Bukele’s record on democracy and human rights.
The US State Department has alleged that Bukele’s war on powerful street gangs has led to ‘torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and other related abuses’ of tens of thousands of detainees. His government has also persecuted journalists, activists and critics.
But migration now appears to be returning to the top of the bilateral agenda for both countries, as Biden also seeks re-election.
While the Biden administration has said Central American countries need to “step up and do more” to control migration, not all have welcomed the call with open arms.
“Most governments have realised that migration is of clear interest to the United States, and therefore it becomes a bargaining chip,” said Pamela Ruiz, Central America analyst for the International Crisis Group. “They are either going to be partners or adversaries on this issue.”
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador have worked with the US to open centres for migrants seeking asylum, family reunification or temporary work permits.
Nicaragua, meanwhile, has opened its doors to hundreds of charter flights carrying tens of thousands of Cuban and Haitian migrants to the US in recent months.
The flights – which one analyst described as Nicaragua “weaponising migration as a foreign policy” – were met with a stern warning from the Biden administration.
“We are exploring the full range of possible consequences for those who facilitate this form of irregular migration,” US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian A. Nichols wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, this month. The Haitian government announced that the charter flights would be temporarily suspended.
As Bukele came under renewed criticism in recent weeks as he registered to seek re-election in 2024, the Biden administration was cautious in its remarks.
“There needs to be a broad debate about the legality and legitimacy of the election, but that’s a debate for Salvadorans,” Nichols said during a recent visit to El Salvador and ahead of a meeting with Bukele.
The comments were in sharp contrast to condemnations of “anti-democratic behaviour” in neighbouring Guatemala’s elections months earlier.
Bukele “is willing to cooperate on immigration by banning certain nationalities and charging them a ridiculous fee in order not to be criticised internationally,” said Ruiz of the Crisis Group. “Part of me wonders … are we not going to criticise the Bukele government as much because it’s supposedly reducing the number of migrants?”
