{"id":21874,"date":"2023-12-26T00:30:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T06:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=21874"},"modified":"2023-12-26T00:30:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T06:30:39","slug":"276-indians-stuck-in-a-french-airport-for-days-for-a-human-trafficking-probe-arrive-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=21874","title":{"rendered":"276 Indians stuck in a French airport for days for a human trafficking probe arrive in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A charter plane that was grounded in France<\/u><\/a> for a human trafficking investigation arrived in India with 276 Indians aboard early Tuesday, authorities said. The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside the Vatry Airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, and that 25 others requested asylum in France. Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris\u2019 Charles de Gaulle airport for asylum-seekers, it said. The passengers grounded in France had included a 21-month-old child and several unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor\u2019s office said. The judge named them as \u2018\u2019assisted witnesses\u2019\u2019 to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped Thursday for refueling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua, and was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying human trafficking victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors wouldn\u2019t comment on whether the passengers\u2019 ultimate destination could have been the U.S., which has seen a surge in Indians crossing<\/u><\/a> the Mexico-U.S. border this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organized criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It did not specify Monday whether human trafficking\u2002<\/u><\/a>\u2014 which the U.N. defines as \u201cthe recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit\u201d \u2014 is still suspected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vatry airport was requisitioned by police for days. Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside. Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some lawyers at Sunday\u2019s hearings protested authorities\u2019 handling of the situation and the passengers\u2019 rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian Embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home. French authorities worked through Christmas Eve and Christmas morning on formalities to allow passengers to leave France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers didn\u2019t want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua. The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. government has designated Nicaragua<\/u><\/a> as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. Sometimes charter flights<\/u><\/a> are used for the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A charter plane that was grounded in France for a human trafficking investigation arrived in India with 276 Indians aboard early Tuesday, authorities said. The passengers had been heading to Nicaragua but were instead blocked inside the Vatry Airport for four days in an exceptional holiday ordeal. The regional administration said that 276 of the original 303 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[25332,25331,25333,25334,7799,3620,1899],"class_list":["post-21874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-charter-flights","tag-france","tag-grounding","tag-holiday-ordeal","tag-human-trafficking","tag-india","tag-investigation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21874"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21876,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions\/21876"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}