Plane held for days in France on trafficking concerns lands in India
A plane that was initially bound for Nicaragua and had been grounded in France over concerns of potential human trafficking landed in Mumbai, India, early Tuesday. The Airbus A340 had been detained at Vatry airport, east of Paris, where it had stopped for refueling. The plane had arrived from Dubai, and an anonymous tip-off had suggested that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking. The aircraft, with an original passenger list of 303, took off from France with 276 passengers after being grounded for several days. The plane landed at Mumbai's international airport after a nearly nine-hour flight.
Among the passengers who stayed behind in France were two individuals initially questioned by French police over suspected people trafficking. However, authorities released them after establishing that the passengers had boarded the plane voluntarily. The French authorities are continuing their investigation, focusing on potential violations of immigration laws rather than human trafficking.
The two individuals who were initially questioned have received an expulsion order from France. The other 25 passengers who stayed behind in France have sought asylum, with five of them being minors. Their asylum applications will be processed at Charles de Gaulle airport.
The flight, operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines, was put up at the airport during the investigation, with facilities such as beds, toilets, and showers provided. French prosecutors, after two days of questioning passengers, gave the authorization for the plane to leave. A French court ruled that any further detention of three passengers would be illegal.
The passengers on the flight, many of whom are reportedly Indian workers in the United Arab Emirates, were believed to be heading to Nicaragua as a transit point for the United States or Canada. The release of the plane has prompted some concerns, with advocates questioning whether some passengers might be victims of human trafficking.
The use of charter flights to aid migrants in reaching their desired destinations has been described as a relatively new phenomenon. Manuel Orozco, director of migration issues at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, suggested that airline operators and Nicaraguan airport authorities might have made an "economic calculation" for their mutual benefit. Legend Airlines, the operator of the flight, has just four planes, according to Flightradar24.
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