WARS — The plane with 303 Indian passengers that was heading to Nicaragua and has been immobilized in a French airport since Thursday due to suspicions of human trafficking, he will fly to Bombay this Monday, after an exceptional legal process in the middle of Christmas that left some 300 Indians blocked inside a rural French airport for four days.
A lawyer for the airline said most passengers would be on board.
French authorities continue to investigate the purpose of the original flight, which was from United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua, and two passengers were detained. The prosecution did not comment on what kind of human trafficking It was suspected or whether the final destination of the passengers could be the United States, which this year has recorded an increase in Indian citizens crossing the border between Mexico and the United States.
Officers worked throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on procedures to allow passengers to leave Vatry airfield in the Champagne region, regional prosecutor Annick Brown said. Among the passengers was a 21-month-old baby and 11 unaccompanied children who were placed under special administrative guardianship.
The Legend Airlines A340 aircraft landed in Vatry on Thursday to refuel on its way to Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates before flying to Managua, Nicaragua, and was detained by police after receiving anonymous information that it could lead to victims of human trafficking.
Two detained before a judge
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said it had received the green light from French authorities to transfer 301 of the 303 passengers on a direct flight to Mumbai on Monday, but the final figure was expected to be lower.
These two men, born in 2000 and 1984, will appear before a judge on Monday and may be accused of conspiracy in an organized gang to help undocumented foreigners enter the country, as well as membership in an illicit association, according to the prosecutor’s office.
There are also 12 people who requested asylum in France, according to a source close to the case.
Airline denies involvement in human trafficking
Bakayoko said that some of the other passengers did not want to go to India because they had paid for a tourist trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any involvement in possible human trafficking.
Lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested the authorities’ overall handling of the strange situation and their handling of passengers’ rights.
In France, foreigners can be detained for up to four days in a transit zone to be investigated by police, and then a special judge must determine whether to extend the period to an additional eight days. Local authorities, doctors and volunteers set up folding beds and made sure people at the airport had access to food and showers.
The United States considers that Nicaragua is one of the countries that has not met the minimum standards to combat human trafficking. Nicaragua has been used as a transit point by migrants from Central America, the Caribbean and even Africa and Asia, due to its lower visa requirements. Chartered planes are sometimes used on these flights.
Unaccompanied minors
Among the asylum seekers are five of the eleven unaccompanied minors on the flight, said a local educational accompaniment association, which will take care of these minors.
According to the lawyer Bakayoko, “several people do not want to go to India, they are very dissatisfied, they want to go to Nicaragua,” on a trip that some passengers questioned on Sunday stated was for the purpose of “tourism.”
A source close to the investigation stated that the passengers, probably Indian workers in the Emirates, wanted to reach Central America to try to head from there to the north and enter the United States or Canada irregularly.
During the investigation, the passengers remained at the airport, in areas set up by civil protection services, with individual beds, bathrooms and showers.
The authorization for the departure of the plane was made after the court annulled the detention of three of the travelers at the airfield.
The crew members, 15 for the Dubai-Vatry route and 14 or 15 for the Vatry-Managua connection, were allowed to leave freely after being interrogated.
According to the specialized website Flightradar, Legend Airlines is a small company that has a fleet of four aircraft.
Source: With information from AP and AFP
