Authorities are questioning hundreds of Indian nationals stranded at a French airport amid fears they may be victims of human trafficking.
Four French judges are rushing to speak to a group of more than 300 Indians who have been grounded since Thursday at Vatry airport, 150 km east of Paris.
Their charter plane, bound for the Central American nation of Nicaragua, was stopped at Vatry airport, where it landed to refuel, after authorities received an anonymous tip that victims of human trafficking might be on board. It took off from Fujairah Airport in the United Arab Emirates and was operated by the Romanian company Legend Airlines.
The seized passengers are due to appear before French judges on Sunday, who will decide whether to keep them at the airport longer or send them on their way, the Marne region administration said.
“I don’t know if this has ever happened in France,” Francois Procureur, a lawyer and head of the Chalons-en-Champagne bar association, told local media on Saturday. The situation is urgent because “we cannot keep foreigners in the waiting room for more than 96 hours. Beyond that, it is the liberty and care judge who must decide their fate,” he said.
If necessary, a specialist judge could extend the detention of passengers for eight days, followed by a further eight days in exceptional circumstances.
After initially being held on the tarmac, the passengers were moved to the airport’s waiting area terminal where beds were installed for them to sleep on, French broadcaster BFM TV reported. Staff were also on hand to provide medical assistance to those in need, the media reported.
There are many children and 11 unaccompanied minors in the group. Ten of the passengers applied for asylum, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, citing a source close to the case.
Patrick Jaloux, head of civil protection for the Marne region, said passengers were understandably “frustrated” after three nights at the airport.
The Indian embassy in Paris said on Saturday that it was working to “rapidly resolve the situation” and posted on X that “consular officials are in place”.
The airline denies the role of human trafficking
Several detained passengers are suspected of having a different “role” on the trip than the other passengers.
Two in particular are being investigated as part of a special investigation into suspected human trafficking by a criminal group, prosecutors in Paris said.
The 15 crew members of a Legend Airlines charter flight have been questioned and released, according to a lawyer for the airline, who denied the company had any possible role in human trafficking.
Nicaragua, where the flight was headed, has been designated by the US government as one of several countries that do not meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.
Nicaragua has also been used as a base by people fleeing poverty or conflict in the Caribbean, as well as from distant countries in Africa or Asia, due to relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. From there, migrants take buses to the north with the help of smugglers.
According to Mexico’s immigration agency, the flow of Indian migrants through Mexico has increased from less than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 between January and November this year.
In the US government’s fiscal year that ended on September 30, Indian citizens were arrested 41,770 times when they entered the US illegally from Mexico, more than double the 18,308 the previous year.
