Sunday April 16, 2023
UPDATE: Passengers claim deception as Air Anka flight redirected
Hava Sosyal Medya, a Turkish media outlet specializing in aviation news, reported that Air Anka unexpectedly cancelled its flight to Nicaragua. Officials from the airline informed passengers that the flight would be rerouted to El Salvador rather than Nicaragua.
It became apparent that a majority of the passengers on the flight held Ethiopian passports, not Somali. El Salvador, however, requires visas for Ethiopian citizens. The confusion has led to ongoing debates within the terminal, with passengers accusing Air Anka of deception.
According to sources, some Somali passengers are slated to be put on flights back to Mogadishu over the weekend. Meanwhile, the situation for the Ethiopian passengers remains unresolved. 
Istanbul (HOL) - Over 250 Somali migrants were stranded at Istanbul Airport in Turkey since Friday after a failed attempt to travel to Nicaragua with the ultimate goal of illegally entering the United States. The stranded passengers, who invested a significant amount of money in their journey, are now facing an uncertain future as their chartered Airbus has been grounded due to alleged fraudulent activities by Somali and Turkish brokers.
The passengers, including those from India and other African and Asian countries, were charged between $4,000-6,000 each, amounting to a total cost of two million dollars for the trip.
According to the passengers, the plane was chartered from Air Anka for a non-scheduled flight on Friday to Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. Air Anka is a relatively new, Izmir-based airline that began operations as a cargo airline in 2022 but received permission to fly passengers in January 2023. Aviation records indicate that the airline operates two Airbus A330-220s and one A330-300.
In recent months, many Somalis, including some popular figures on social media, have successfully entered the United States illegally via Mexico.
As the United States grapples with an increasing number of immigrants at its borders, the fate of the stranded Somali migrants remains uncertain. Approximately 150 migrants, many of them Somali,
are gathered at the San Ysidro Port of Entry leading to San Diego, California.
The FBI recently tipped off Costa Rican authorities about Luqman Warsame Farah, who is believed to be the eldest son of Fuad Shangole, a high-ranking senior leader of Al-Shabaab. Farah
was deported to Somalia after entering Costa Rica using a Swedish passport and attempting to cross into Nicaragua. Security experts widely believe that he intended to enter the US illegally.
The phenomenon of illegal migration among Somali youth, known as "Tahriib," often involves human smugglers
who prey on their desperation for a better life. Traditionally, the most popular route for these migrants was through war-torn Yemen, the Middle East, or Sudan and North Africa, with the ultimate destination being Europe. However, the United States and Canada, home to a sizeable Somali diaspora, are also
popular routes for Somali migrants. Many of these journeys are advertised on social media platforms like TikTok.
In response to the ongoing migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border, the Biden administration is working to alter the incentives that drive illegal border crossings, aiming to encourage migrants to enter the country legally. As Title 42, a pandemic-related border restriction, expires in early May, the Department of Homeland Security has
proposed a rule to prevent a larger migration surge. With few exceptions, the administration plans to reject asylum claims from individuals who illegally cross the border.
The United States is also engaging regional allies to address the situation. During a summit in Ottawa last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada would accept an additional 15,000 Western Hemisphere refugees annually. In exchange, Washington agreed to
close a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement, which had encouraged some asylum seekers to transit to the US and enter Canada illegally. While the numbers on the northern border are smaller than the southern border, approximately 5,000 asylum seekers entered Canada from the United States in January, primarily through the Roxham Road crossing between New York and Quebec.