The French authorities hope to obtain “Monday morning at the latest” authorizations to re-route by plane the Indian passengers confined since Thursday evening at Vatry airport in Marne after the immobilization of their aircraft, against a backdrop of suspicions of human trafficking. Human being.
The Paris prosecutor’s office indicated that the courts had authorized the plane in question to leave the Marne, a decision which “allows us to consider the rerouting of passengers placed in the waiting zone” in the airport, then announced the prefecture in a press release, without specifying any destination.
Return “to India”
“Consequently, the competent authorities of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) are endeavoring to obtain the necessary authorizations for the re-takeoff of the plane”, which arrived in France with 303 passengers, “which should take place at most late Monday morning,” she added.
The aircraft and its passengers would return “towards India”, declared the president of Châlons-en-Champagne, François Procureur, during a press briefing, information which he said he had from state lawyers.
A rapid departure of these Indians, two of whom are still in police custody, is all the more likely as the courts canceled on Sunday, for three of them, the procedure of being held for three days in the airport hall. . Customs subsequently waived the procedure for the other passengers.
“A disproportionate attack on human rights”
This cancellation, decided by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD), is explained in particular by the waiting period of 11 hours between the moment when the plane and its passengers were immobilized and when a JLD was seized, which constitutes “a disproportionate attack on human rights”, according to the order consulted by AFP.
Several JLDs were mobilized on Sunday for a major operation on Christmas Eve in a building adjacent to the terminal, in order to decide whether these passengers should remain in the waiting area.
An “anonymous report”
The Airbus A340 of these 303 Indians, which was flying between Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Managua, capital of Nicaragua, landed Thursday afternoon in Vatry, 150 km from Paris, to refuel.
But this simple technical stopover turned into a long immobilization after an “anonymous report” according to which passengers were “likely to be victims of human trafficking” in an organized gang, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicated on Friday.
According to a source close to the matter, these Indians, probably workers in the United Arab Emirates, could have planned to go to Central America in order to then try to enter illegally into the United States or Canada. Among them are eleven unaccompanied minors, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Police custody and ongoing investigation
The investigation, conducted by the National jurisdiction for the fight against organized crime (Junalco), aims to “verify whether elements would corroborate” suspicions of human trafficking, according to the prosecution.
Two police custody began on Friday and were “extended on Saturday evening, for a maximum duration of 48 hours”, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office, “in order to verify” whether the role of these two people “could have been different from that others “.
Ten asylum requests had also been filed late Saturday afternoon, according to a source close to the case.
“Poor living conditions”
The Marne prefecture specifies that individual beds, toilets and showers have been installed in the waiting area of the airport and that a “family” zone, to ensure parent-child privacy”, has been put in place.
But the Prosecutor was concerned about “problems of cramped conditions and poor living conditions” in this area created by prefectural decree on Thursday evening.
According to the specialized site Flightradar, Legend Airlines is a small company whose fleet is made up of four planes, including two A340-313s.
Vatry airport, a small aerodrome located 150 km east of Paris, welcomed 62,000 passengers in 2022, mainly via low-cost companies, according to the Union of French Airports.