Libya-Nicaragua: Who's behind the new migration route?

In recent months, flights have been leaving Benghazi’s Benina Airport and Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport carrying migrants to Nicaragua. Although largely undereported, this development has raised concerns in Washington and other capitals about a new illegal migration route that could be backed by a foreign actor to create disruptions ahead of the U.S. presidential elections in November, in which border politics and migration are important topics. Our team has led its own investigation to uncover details about the flights and their broader dynamics.

A closer look

By the end of May, reports of at least two flights from Benghazi to Nicaragua’s capital Managua made the rounds on international media outlets.

Considering the departure location of these flights, suspicions quickly arose regarding the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) involvement in the chartering of flights to transport migrants to Nicaragua – a relatively easy destination for anyone interested in reaching the U.S. Significantly, this was seen as a potential provocation by Russia, one of the LNA’s foreign allies.

However, after conducting site visits and multiple interviews with officials, diplomats, airport personnel, and security actors in both western and eastern Libya, we were able to ascertain that the flights do not appear to be part of an LNA operation but rather constitute a desperate attempt by a bankrupt airline to gain windfall revenue.

A struggling airline and an unusual destination

Ghadames Airlines, the airline that is responsible for operating the flights between Libya and Nicaragua, was established in 2021 as a private company with headquarters in Tripoli. Before flying to Nicaragua, the airline only operated regional routes connecting Libya to Turkey and Tunisia.

According to sources, in 2023, it came close to filing for bankruptcy. This pushed its management, led by Mohamed Akram, to open the airline to dubious investors, including human smugglers and money launderers. As a result, the company chartered its flights for smuggling trips to Central America from Libya, mainly transporting South and Central Asian migrants according to our investigation.

In addition to the final destination in Central America being unusual for an airline that had only been operating regionally, its departure from Benghazi is also uncommon as the airline is headquartered at Tripoli’s Mitiga International Airport. In fact, Ghadames Airlines operated two first trips to Nicaragua from Tripoli as early as March 15, a route that did not go unnoticed by Libyan authorities and which led to the temporary suspension of the airline’s flights pending an investigation.

According to informed sources, the airline was allowed to resume its operations following the investigation because, despite clear signals that this was a human smuggling operation, the individuals on these flights had transited through Libya legally, with valid Libyan visas, and had legally bought their flight tickets to Nicaragua, a country that allows all nationalities to enter its territory for a period of 90 days without a visa. Similarly, the flights from Benghazi took place during the period in which Ghadames Airlines was suspended in Tripoli and were allowed to leave Benina Airport as "all procedures and paperwork were respected," according to a local source.

Charter flights are common in Libya and take off to random destinations without much supervision. Libyan state institutions have either turned a blind eye on human smuggling or been infiltrated by smugglers as militiamen engaged in such practices have secured formal positions for themselves in recent years, either in official government roles or state companies. Therefore, it would not come as a surprise if the smuggling networks taking care of the flights to Nicaragua have allies within aviation institutions across Libya to cover for them.

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