A popular passage used by thousands of Senegalese migrants to enter the US via flights to Nicaragua and a land route through Mexico has become practically “impossible”, a Senegalese man who made the trip has told Sky News.
Local authorities have banned travel agents from selling plane tickets from Dakar to Nicaragua. Airports in Casablanca and Madrid – key transit hubs for the route – imposed transit visas on Senegalese passport holders earlier this year.
The crackdown comes after US authorities arrested Senegalese migrants 20,231 times for crossing the border illegally from July to December.
That’s 10 times more arrests than in the last six months of 2022, according to US Customs and Border Protection.
Image: Migrants begin their journey in Dakar
“There are some friends who ask how I did it, they were curious but didn’t have the money to make it,” a Senegalese man who made the journey in August 2023 tells us from his new home in the US.
“I put some of them in touch with the guy who helped me but some waited too long and now the route is closed.”
He says he spent 10 years’ worth of savings boosted by a loan from his sister to buy the £5,200 plane ticket to Nicaragua and pay £2,600 for smugglers taking them through Central America.
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Image: Senegal has a 700 km coastline and many beaches are migrant departure points to the Canary Islands
“It was very hard. I just got information from one of my friends that it was possible to attempt the US via Nicaragua and at that point I didn’t even have a passport,” he said.
He flew from Dakar to Casablanca to Madrid and after a 23-hour transit boarded a flight to Bogotá. From there, he flew to San Salvador and finally took a last flight to the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
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After five flights, the difficult journey had only just begun.
‘Guys were celebrating… crying’
He boarded a bus from Nicaragua to Honduras and then to Mexico where smugglers transported them in pickup trucks and by foot to the US border.
Image: The Atlantic route has been called the busiest and deadliest
He says he was robbed by gangsters multiple times as he traversed the tough terrain of rivers and mountains to make it to the fence.
“When they cut the fence and brought us across, guys were celebrating, crying and shouting. After that we had to walk for a long distance but we were too happy to feel it,” he said.
He spent two days at the border detention camp on the US-Mexico border before he was released.
It took him 18 days to make it and says that for others it can take a month. There is no doubt in his mind that he made the right choice, even as he waits for permanent status.
“Senegal is very hard – I went to university and have a masters degree. It is better [here in the US] than Senegal. What they pay here in one week is more than [what they pay] a month in Senegal,” he added.
It comes as Donald Trump is promising to crack down on illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration if elected in November to a second four-year term in the White House.
Meanwhile, his opponent in the US general election, Joe Biden, is mulling a broader executive order to crack down on border crossings that may come later this year.
Yet, young men across Dakar are working to earn money in case a similar route to the US taken by the Senagalese man opens.
Image: Young men in Dakar are saving up to leave via safer more expensive options
The journey through Nicaragua to the US is seen as a safer – albeit expensive – alternative to the deadly Atlantic route to the Canary Islands by fishing boat and the arduous land journey through North Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and then across to Italy.
For those who have survived those routes, the cost of trying and failing is much higher than the thousands of pounds needed to get to the US.
‘I thought slavery was finished’
Window-cleaner Issa, 32, says he was enslaved, tortured and detained in Libya before agreeing to return to Dakar.
Image: Young men returning from Libya are looking for safer options after experiencing torture and enslavement
He now organises a support group called Young Migrant Returnees that meet to work through the trauma they experienced in Libya and other corridor countries and raise awareness around the dangers.
“It was incredibly difficult – forced labour – we faced terrible things and we don’t want it to happen to friends and family,” he said.
“There were many of us and a lot of them died on the road. Some of them were imprisoned but we had a chance to come back to our country.”
He added: “I will never forget those memories. I thought that slavery was finished but from what I’ve experienced it’s still happening.”
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Repelled from trying again via Libya and horrified by the hundreds of young men dying in the North Atlantic, they weigh up their options.
Issa’s brother was in Brazil when the Nicaragua route opened up and is now in the US.
“If someone presented us with an opportunity to leave, which is different to the Libya route, we will take it because we are living a hard life in Senegal,” he said.
“Even those who worked in factories – the pay cheque is not good.”
A trove of newly released Epstein files include emails that appear to involve Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, while another suggests Donald Trump travelled on the billionaire’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
The US Department of Justice released at least 11,000 more files on Tuesday.
It went on to claim that some of them “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” about President Trump.
Here are some of the latest news lines from this release of Epstein files. Being named in these papers does not suggest wrongdoing.
Who is ‘The Invisible Man’?
Among the documents released is an email sent to Ghislaine Maxwell that speaks about “the girls” being “completely shattered” at a Royal Family summer camp at Balmoral.
It is dated 16 August 2001 and sent by a person referred to only as “The Invisible Man”, but whom Sky News is reporting appears to be the former prince, Andrew.
We have come to that conclusion from reviewing the email address used, which is assigned to the Duke of York in Epstein’s contacts book and the chain of correspondence.
Andrew pictured laying on women
In the correspondence, “The Invisible Man” asks Maxwell: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any allegations against him.
Watch: What’s in the largest batch of Epstein files?
The Peru trip
Another email appears to show Maxwell arranging “two-legged sight seeing” for “The Invisible Man” during a trip to Peru.
She appears to forward to “The Invisible Man” part of a conversation between herself and another person.
The email says: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no. He is interested in seeing the Nazca lines. He can ride but it is not his favorite sport ie pass on the horses.”
“Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy. I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and will only introduce him to friends that you can trust,” Maxwell said.
The context of the email is unclear and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
Epstein survivor speaks to Sky News after latest release of files
Trump on Epstein’s jet?
The latest bunch of files also includes an email from an unidentified prosecutor dated 7 January, 2020, in which President Trump is mentioned.
The email accuses him of travelling on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
It adds that President Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present”.
The email’s sender and receiver have been redacted. However, at the bottom of the email it says assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York. The name has also been redacted.
President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his relationship with Epstein, and being on any of Epstein’s flights does not indicate any wrongdoing.
One of the documents in the release shows a report made to the FBI that was recorded on 27 October 2020.
It includes an unverified claim by a limousine driver that he overheard the US president discussing “abusing some girl” in 1995.
The driver also mentions Trump said “Jeffrey” while on the phone during a journey to Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
A significant part of the statement, along with the driver’s identity, has been redacted.
The US justice department has said that some of the documents in the latest Epstein files release “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”.
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” it said.
Postcard mentions ‘our president’
Also among the documents is a postcard that claims to have been sent by Jeffrey Epstein, but has been refuted by the justice department.
In it, the sender tells the recipient: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”
It’s not clear who “our president” refers to and the context of the postcard is also unclear.
The US justice department initially said it was “looking into the validity” of the postcard but later said on X that the “FBI has confirmed” the postcard is “FAKE”.
It cited reasons including a claim that the writing does not appear to match Epstein’s and another that the letter was postmarked three days after his death.
Row over unreleased documents
It is believed that many files relating to Epstein are yet to be made public.
There has been anger at the justice department’s slow release of the files, with politicians threatening to launch legal action against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The deadline for the release of all the documents has passed.
“The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected,” Republican congressman Thomas Massie said.
A balcony of onlookers stare as three diggers gnaw at the four-storey building that was a fixture of their daily view.
The roads of Silwan’s Wadi Qaddom neighbourhood are blocked off by Israeli police as residents watch the demolition in the valley from every vantage point. The block of flats was home to around 100 of their neighbours – many of them are now homeless.
An elderly woman sits at the bus stop near the police checkpoint closest to the demolition site. As she walks back down the hill, she looks back at the destruction. Her cheeks are red with anger when she hails that God is their only protection.
“Where are the Arab countries? No one is here to help us,” she exclaims.
Of the 230 buildings demolished in East Jerusalem’s Palestinian neighbourhoods in 2025, the block of roughly 13 flats is considered to be the largest and took 12 hours to completely demolish.
Image: The demolition of a building in Silwan’s Wadi Qaddom neighbourhood
The building was without a permit, like many in Silwan, and stood on land that was not licensed for residential use. The residents were challenging long-standing demolition orders and applying for licensing when diggers arrived at dawn.
The Jerusalem Municipality said the demolition of the building in Silwan was based on a 2014 court order, and that residents were granted extensions for the execution of the order and were offered various options in order to find a solution, but they declined to do so.
But an architect and urban planner from the Israeli NGO Bimkom (Planners for Planning Rights) – which is supporting the families in their bid to license the land of the building – says their time to act was cut short.
Image: Architect Sari Kornish speaks to Sky’s Yousra Elbagir
“They were told that the demolition order would be implemented, and then they would get another six months’ recourse to try to continue with their planning. Six months is not enough for these planning processes. They take a long time,” Sari Kornish tells us in front of the Jerusalem Municipality after meeting with the building residents’ lawyer there.
Are permits granted for Palestinians in East Jerusalem?
“Very, very few, and in recent years, since October 7, less and less,” says Sari.
“It has always been discrimination. It has always been not enough.”
Far-right minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X about the building’s demolition.
He said: “Proud to lead the policy of demolishing illegal buildings – not only in the Negev, this morning in East Jerusalem (Silwan neighbourhood) a building that was built illegally and 100 people lived in it – was demolished! Strengthens the police and the district commander.”
Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank is illegal under international law.
Half a million Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, and over 230,000 live in East Jerusalem, where some are taking over homes instead of seizing land.
At least 500 Palestinians have lost their homes to lack-of-permit demolitions in East Jerusalem, and at least 1,000 people, including 460 children, are at risk of forced displacement from eviction cases filed against them in Israeli courts by settler organisations.
Image: Zuhair al Rajabbi looks out at the homes of his neighbours now marked by demolition sites
In the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Batn al Hawa in Silwan, Zuhair al Rajabbi looks out from his balcony at the homes of his neighbours.
The landscape is marked by demolition sites, and former homes of his neighbours are marked by Israeli flags. Settlers are busy renovating the rooftops to make their own.
“They have five children, and a grandmother was in one room. Downstairs, there was a family of seven children, with the wife and mother, in that one,” he says, pointing at the roof of his neighbours.
Image: Israeli settler flags on a building in Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem
As we watch, a woman quietly mops the dirty water into a hole in the fence and onto the roof of the house next door.
“Look, they are even putting the dirty water on our neighbour’s roof,” Zuhair says with a sad bitterness.
“We used to live together like we live here at home – eating and drinking with them. It makes me sad when I see their home disappearing.”
Russia launched a major overnight missile and drone attack on Ukraine that killed at least three people – including a four-year-old child.
Officials say Russia fired more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles in an assault that began during the night and stretched into daylight hours Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the barrage struck homes and the power grid in 13 regions across Ukraine, causing widespread outages in bitter temperatures.
It comes a day after he described recent progress towards a peace deal as “quite solid”.
The bombardment demonstrated Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention of pursuing the invasion of Ukraine, Mr Zelenskyy said in an online post.
Image: A damaged apartment building in Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Image: A damaged apartment building in Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Ukrainian and European officials have said Putin is not sincerely engaging with US-led peace efforts.
The attack “is an extremely clear signal of Russian priorities,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
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“A strike before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety. A strike, in fact, in the midst of negotiations that are being conducted to end this war. Putin cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing.”
US President Donald Trump has for months been pressing for a peace agreement, but the negotiations have become entangled in the very different demands from Moscow and Kyiv.
US envoy Steve Witkoff described talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives as “productive and constructive”.
Image: A drone explodes during a Russian missile and drone strike, in Kyiv. Pic: Reuters
Trump was less effusive on Monday, saying, “The talks are going along.”
Initial reports from Ukrainian emergency services said the child died in Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region, while a drone killed a woman in the Kyiv region, and another civilian death was recorded in the western Khmelnytskyi region, according to Mr Zelenskyy.
Russia launched 635 drones of various types and 38 missiles, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defences stopped 587 drones and 34 missiles, it said.
Polish and allied fighter jets were deployed after the Russian airstrikes towards western Ukraine, near Poland’s border.
“Fighter jets were scrambled, and ground-based air-defence and radar reconnaissance systems were put on heightened readiness,” the operational command of Poland’s armed forces said.
It was the ninth large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system this year and left multiple regions in the west without power, while emergency power outages were in place across the country, acting Energy Minister Artem Nekraso said. Work to restore power would begin as soon as the security situation permitted, he said.
Ukraine’s largest private energy supplier, DTEK, said the attack targeted thermal power stations in what it said was the seventh major strike on the company’s facilities since October.
DTEK’s thermal power plants have been hit more than 220 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Those attacks have killed four workers and wounded 59.
Authorities in the western regions of Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv, as well as the northern Sumy region, reported damage to energy infrastructure or power outages after the attack.
In the southern Odesa region, Russia struck energy, port, transport, industrial and residential infrastructure, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
A merchant ship and over 120 homes were damaged, he said.