PARIS — This Sunday, the French justice system authorized the departure of a plane heading to Nicaragua with 303 Indian passengers, immobilized since Thursday during a stopover at an airport 150 km from Paris on suspicion of human trafficking.
The device, an Airbus A340 of the Romanian company Legend Airlines, will be able to depart from Vatry airport (north), the prosecutor’s office reported.
The decision opens the door for passengers to be “redirected,” said the prefecture of the Marne department, where Vatry airport is located, without giving details about the final destination of the journey.
“The DGAC (General Directorate of Civil Aviation) is working to obtain the necessary authorizations so that the plane can take off again, which should occur no later than Monday morning,” he added.
Where are they traveling?
The plane, with its passengers, could “depart for India,” said François Procureur, president of the Bar Association of the town of Châlons-en-Campagne, in the Marne department.
The lawyer stated in a press conference that this information was given to him by the French State’s lawyers.
The probability of a quick departure of the passengers, two of whom were detained, increased after the court annulled the detention of three of them at the airport and that French customs renounced, after that decision, holding the rest. in the premises.
One of the four judges mobilized for the case considered that the 11-hour delay between the moment the plane was grounded and the moment the matter was referred to a magistrate constituted “a disproportionate violation of the rights of the individual.”
The president of the local Bar Association expressed his concern about the “poor living conditions” in the area enabled by the civil protection services to accommodate Indian citizens, 11 of whom are traveling alone.
The plane, from Dubai, was going to Managua with a refueling stopover in France. The prosecutor’s office indicated on Friday that he was detained after an “anonymous complaint” that some passengers could be victims of “human trafficking.”
A source close to the investigation stated that the passengers probably intended to go to a Central American country to try to go from there to the north and enter the United States or Canada irregularly.
French justice began on Sunday to take statements from all the passengers to determine if they could be detained beyond the four days established by law.
This period could be extended by eight days by a judge and another eight in exceptional circumstances.
Asylum application
The hearings, in which lawyers and translators also participated, took place in a building next to the waiting area, around which white tarps were installed to maintain privacy.
The investigation, led by the national jurisdiction to combat organized crime, seeks to “verify if there are elements that corroborate” the suspicions of human trafficking.
Ten passengers filed an asylum request, according to a source close to the case.
The crew members, 15 for the Dubai-Vatry route and 14 or 15 for the Vatry-Managua connection, “were interrogated and authorized to leave freely,” Liliana Bakayoko, the airline’s lawyer, reported on Saturday.
According to the specialized website Flightradar, Legend Airlines is a small company that has a fleet of four aircraft.
Source: With information from AFP
