NEW DELHI: Most of the 303 passengers who have been grounded in France’s Vatry airport since the last two days, on suspicion of human trafficking, are from Punjab. Some individuals among them have even applied for asylum in France. Local authorities are actively investigating the passengers to determine the duration of their stay. According to legal constraints, the individuals cannot be held at the airport for more than 96 hours, although the judge retains the authority to extend this period up to 8 days.
"Most of these passengers, which include minors (age group 21 months to 17 years) are from Punjab. Some have sought asylum during their interrogation, while the passports of some have been kept by the French authorities. Only after all of them have been screened will a decision be taken on how long they would be detained at Vatry,’’ said a source adding that a few Indians are from the Southern State of Tamil Nadu.
Four judges, four lawyers and four clerks are taking part in the proceedings with the help of translators. Representatives of the Indian mission in Paris are stationed at Vatry to facilitate these passengers.
Meanwhile, the airline and its crew are likely to be allowed to take off by Monday. The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines charter flight — an unmarked A340 plane en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates to Managua, Nicaragua — were questioned and released, according to Liliana Bakayoko, a lawyer for the Romania-based airline.
Interestingly, a partner company (which hasn’t been identified) that chartered the aircraft (which also verified the documents of passengers and shared passport information with the airline 48 hours before departure) had charted many other flights for them on the same route (Dubai to Nicaragua) and it was incident free.
Meanwhile, the US has seen an increase of Indians crossing the Mexico-US border during the past year and has also designated Nicaragua as one of the nations failing to eliminate human trafficking.
The influx of Indian migrants through Mexico has increased from fewer than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 from January to November this year, according to the Mexican Immigration Agency. Indian citizens were arrested 41,770 times entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico in the U.S. government’s budget year that ended Sept. 30, more than double from 18,308 the previous year.