A plane traveling from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua and carrying 303 Indian passengers has been grounded since Thursday at Vatry airport (Marne) due to “suspected human trafficking”announced Friday December 22 the Marne prefecture and the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation.
This immobilization follows “an anonymous report” according to which this plane “carried Indian passengers (…) likely to be victims of human trafficking”the Paris prosecutor’s office informed Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This A340, from the Romanian company Legend Airlines, “had to make a technical stopover” in Vatry, said the Marne prefecture in a press release. According to a source close to the matter, who specifies that the plane stopped to refuel, the Indian passengers could have wanted to go to Central America in order to then try to enter illegally into the United States or Canada.
Hearings and verification in progress
The National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) “resumed the investigation to verify whether any elements would corroborate the suspicion of trafficking in human beings by an organized gang, a crime punishable by twenty years of criminal imprisonment and a fine of 3 million euros”adds the prosecution.
“The national directorate of the border police (in particular Oltim, Office for the fight against illicit trafficking of migrants), the air transport gendarmerie and the Vitry-le-François research brigade have been contacted and are carrying out hearings and verifications of passenger transport conditions and objectives »also specifies the prosecution.
By two successive decrees published Thursday evening and Friday morning, the prefect of Marne temporarily extended the waiting area for foreigners to the airport reception hall, where passengers have, according to the prefecture, “individual beds”. A gendarmerie system prevented access to the airport on Friday afternoon, noted an AFP journalist.