news
About 300 Indian nationals have been quarantined for several days at a small airport in France’s Champagne region as authorities investigate whether the chartered flight they took was involved in human trafficking.
The group also included families with children, and the youngest passenger was 21 months old, en route to Nicaragua.Several was an unaccompanied minor; According to the local civil protection agency.
Following a tip-off, French authorities grounded the plane and two passengers were detained as part of a special investigation into suspected human trafficking by an organized crime group.
Prosecutors have not said what type of trafficking is suspected or whether the plane’s final destination is the United States, where the number of Indians crossing the Mexico-U.S. border has skyrocketed this year.
The unmarked A340 has been grounded in Vatry since Thursday. The 15 crew members of the Legend Air charter flight from the United Arab Emirates to Managua, Nicaragua were questioned and released.
Passengers are isolated in camp beds at the airport, which mainly handles small and charter flights.
Indian consular representatives were at the airport and working with the French government for the “welfare of Indian nationals” and “early resolution of the situation,” the Indian embassy in France said in a post on Saturday.
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko denied knowledge of human trafficking involving the plane or its passengers. The customer who chartered this plane was not a European company and had no problems chartering multiple Legend Airlines flights from Dubai to Nicaragua.
The US government is designated nicaragua It is one of several countries deemed not to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.
The number of Indian migrants transiting through Mexico rose from less than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 from January to November this year, according to Mexico’s immigration authorities.
with post wire
Load more…
{{#isDisplay}}
{{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}}
{{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}}
{{/isSR video}}