The group of African men had waited all night in suspense for the gate for the Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to Bogota to be announced.
Ten of the thousands who each month embark on the trek were camped out on the floor using their tiny rucksacks as makeshift pillows while the airport’s bright blue departure screens flickered with fresh updates.
‘Where is it going from?’ asked Latif Abubaker, a 26-year-old Ghanaian national, just after 6 a.m. Wednesday. Flight TK800 will not take off for another four hours.
‘D13, I told you.’ his friend and compatriot Morgan Obu, 29, replied, his voice shaking with excitement: ‘We need to get there early.’
The pair, who declined to have their pictures taken, had traveled via Marrakesh, Morocco, from their home in Accra to get to Turkey’s largest city.
That is because Istanbul-Bogota is the hottest plane ticket in town right now for many young Africans seeking to earn more money or flee alleged persecution at home.
This is the Biden Express, the first leg of a major new smuggling route across the Atlantic that ultimately allows migrants to flood into – and in many cases remain in – the United States.
Greedy people-smugglers are snapping up seats only to sell them on to desperate migrants at hugely inflated prices.
DailyMail.com managed to buy two tickets to fly early on Wednesday morning and follow some 150 young Africans who will try to sneak into the United States.
Most seats on the plane flying from the city where Europe meets Asia to the third largest city in South America were filled with passengers from the African continent.
We were told the next available seat on this daily route is for October 20, but that has almost certainly been snapped up now.
So-called ‘travel agents’, many of them based in Africa itself, offer ‘all-inclusive’ packages on TikTok for as much as $10,000, including transit visas and onward travel from Colombia.
It is a mere euphemism for the people-smuggling trade, with the market for illegal crossings into the U.S. alone estimated to be worth as much as $12 billion each year.
The migrants believe that the policies of the current Biden administration will give them a fairer shot at a fresh start in America.
From Bogota, they will fly directly to El Salvador and then to Managua, the Nicaraguan capital where soft-touch immigration laws under the government of leftist leader Daniel Ortega allow a slew of African nationals to buy so-called tourist visas.
One of them on board the flight was Ahmed Samba, a 33-year-old man dressed in traditional Islamic garb under a western jacket, who hails from the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
Like his Ghanaian counterparts had spent the night sleeping on the airport’s floor after flying in on another Turkish Airlines plane late on Tuesday from his home city.
Ahmed initially told DailyMail.com that he was about to spend four weeks ‘on vacation’ in Nicaragua.
But over burger and fries for breakfast, the unmarried language teacher revealed his true intentions to cross into the U.S. from Mexico.
‘America is the country of freedom and human rights,’ he explained, effortlessly switching between English and French as he polished off his Burger King meal before boarding the plane.
‘What Joe Biden is doing is good. But if Donald Trump gets re-elected next year, it will become more difficult for migrants there. That guy is crazy.’
Ahmed wanted to know about how to claim asylum, and whether he could be supplied with an address to give to the U.S. Border and Customs Patrol agents once detained.
He was acutely aware that he would be immediately released and allowed to roam freely around the country ahead of a possible asylum hearing, a process that can take years due to a backlog of cases.
And curiously, this young man said he had faced no persecution at home, calling the former French colony ‘a rich country’ thanks to its vast mineral wealth, as well as oil and gas reserves.
‘But nothing is properly organized there. You need connections to make it,’ Ahmed said, grasping his travel documents tightly under his arm.
‘I think I will head to New York or Atlanta. There are already lots of Mauritanians in those places.’
His compatriot, Fall, a 28-year-old soccer player, said that he was plotting to enter the United States so he could pursue a career as a coach for young people.
‘I tried to convince many people in Mauritania to set me up with trials in Europe, but it just didn’t work out,’ he said as he showed a photo on his phone of himself performing tricks in his backyard in Nouakchott. ‘I’m a sporty kind of guy and I think I could easily find work in that field.’
‘I’ll do whatever it takes to get to America. From what I’ve seen, it is easy to get in once you reach the border.’
The Mauritanian national had spent two days sleeping at the airport before waiting for his chance to get on board the plane for Colombia.
He, too, had decided to gather at D13 – the wrong gate – with some of his compatriots.
The migrants seem to believe they can dodge any meaningful inspection of their travel documents if they turn up hours before the flight. One man, an observant Muslim, is praying as he waits.
Some of them are about to find out how misguided they are.
‘You’re all wrong,’ said Ahmed. ‘It’s the next one. Look!’
It is just after 8:30 a.m. and the departure screen now shows D11, but the boarding area has already been completely roped off by Turkish Airlines staff to ready themselves for checks.
A handful of bemused Colombians set to return home are already waiting in an orderly line that soon becomes a chaotic mass of migrants. They appear stunned at the sheer numbers.
While half of this plane’s passengers are African men, DailyMail.com also saw several male travelers brandishing passports from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two ex-Soviet dictatorships.
Ahmed and Fall, who flew together from Mauritania on another Turkish Airlines flight, appear relaxed as they patiently wait for their travel documents to be checked by airport officials.
But panic sets in among others who realize their American Dream is about to be shattered.
Aissa Ba, a 28-year-old Guinean who has spent six years living in South Africa, takes herself away to another gate and slumps in a chair with her hand in her hands after being told to turn back.
She has been told that she has not got the right transit visa.
‘I paid more than $10,000 for this trip. I can’t believe this is happening to me,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘I spent everything I had.’
The two Ghanaians, Morgan and Latif, and another man, Bouriema from Burkina Faso, protest bitterly as they are told they will not be boarding the flight today.
Check-in staff suspect that their Colombian visas are fake. The trio claimed that they were only flying to Bogota for an ‘educational exchange program’ for a Ghana-based charity.
That tale left airport officials unconvinced.
‘If you don’t like it, complain to customer services,’ one of the staffers shouts back at them.
‘Help me. Please,’ begged Bouriema when approached by DailyMail.com. ‘They won’t let me board. Try and convince them these are the right papers for Colombia.’
But, in fact, the otherwise convincing documents are indeed counterfeits that have been bought from a Marrakesh ‘travel agent’ for the sum of $500.
The design looks like they have come from the Colombian foreign ministry, but once you scan the ‘visa’ QR code it directs you to a bogus German-registered website.
French language advertisements promising travel to Nicaragua are common on social media in several African countries. The one on the left says: ‘Must be financially prepared and ready for adventure. Once in Mexico you enter the USA without worries so relax.’ On the right it reads: ‘Buy your plane ticket. Obtain your authorization. No need for a visa’
‘Maybe you can convince them that I’ve been scammed, and they can let me get on the flight?’ Bouriema somewhat optimistically volunteered. ‘Or should I call my ambassador?’
Ultimately, he will be left behind and faced with a choice of splashing out for a return journey home or trying to claim asylum in Turkey, which is already hosting four million Syrian refugees.
As the throng of migrants waited in the boarding area, some were so keen to get on the plane that they started to push to the front of the line, angering some passengers.
‘Business class only for now,’ shouted a Turkish Airlines staffer.
One by one, these potential future Americans stream onto the plane and squeeze into their seats.
Not a single spot remained on a flight that was usually only half-full before this new smuggling route to the US came to prominence.
The stench of stale sweat hangs in the air as you walk through the cabin. Many of these passengers had been sleeping at Istanbul Airport for up to two days.
And as many as 16 would-be asylum-seekers have taken up spots in business class after being unable to secure the cheaper option from the smuggling gangs.
Three of those passengers, one Senegalese and two Guineans appear to have not eaten for hours as they gorge on the free gourmet food on offer.
They repeatedly call over the increasingly frustrated flight attendants to order extra servings of their main course of grilled lamb chops.
Alhassane, one of the Guineans, told DailyMail.com that he had paid $12,000 for his trip from Dakar, the capital of Senegal, to Bogota.
‘I am from Sierra Leone,’ he claimed bizarrely, slipping his Guinean passport into his pocket, after being pressed in French about his future travel plans.
This young student of ‘procurement and logistics’ declined to say how he raised the money for a ticket that most hard-working Americans can only dream of being able to afford.
The average annual salary in this Western African nation is approximately just under $10,000.
‘I am just coming here for a university conference and to stay with a friend,’ he said, denying that he has any intention of flying onwards to Nicaragua.
But Alhassane admitted that he plans to forge a career in Boston once he graduates ‘because I have a brother there who has just got a Green Card.’
He is referring to the permanent residency document awarded to foreigners living and working legally in the United States. It grants the holder the opportunity to apply for American citizenship.
‘He has been there since 2015 and says it is a great place to live.’
As the plane pulled up to the gate in Bogota, the migrants scrambled to grab their luggage and pulled out their boarding passes for their next destination: El Salvador.
DailyMail.com followed Alhassane out of the plane where passports and onward travel documents were immediately checked by Colombian immigration officials.
Colombian, British, and American passport holders are waved through, but the African passengers are questioned about their onward travel.
‘Where are you going?’ asked one official to Alhassane in French.
‘Nicaragua. On vacation,’ the young Guinean replied in the language that he appeared not to speak just hours earlier.
He is allowed to proceed without any further questions.
Ahmed Samba is amongst the last group of passengers to disembark. He is now sporting a black Covid mask, but his relief at making it to this side of the Atlantic is still visible across his face.
‘Within three weeks or so, I’ll make it to the United States ins ‘Allah,’ he told DailyMail.com before turning right towards the international departures lounge.
It is there where he, and the other migrants, will spend the night before catching that now-infamous flight to El Salvador the next day.
They have all taken that first crucial step towards reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.