A jet that had been grounded in France for several days due to suspicions that it was a part of a human trafficking operation touched down in India on Tuesday. The passengers swiftly left the busy Mumbai airport without answering any questions from the media.
When the Airbus A340 was stalled last Thursday at Vatry airport, east of Paris, where it had halted for refueling, it was originally scheduled to arrive in Nicaragua.
It was stopped after receiving an anonymous information that it was transporting possible human trafficking victims. It had landed from the United Arab Emirates.
276 passengers from the initial 303 on the passenger list were on the aircraft that touched down in Mumbai on Tuesday before daybreak.
Four hours later, passengers started to emerge onto the concourse, but they covered their faces to protect their identities and would not speak to the vast number of journalists waiting outside.
The Indian government has not yet released a statement regarding the return of the arrivals, and it was unknown if the officials had questioned them.
Two persons who had been questioned by French authorities for possible human trafficking were among those who remained behind.
They were freed once it was determined that the passengers had boarded the aircraft voluntarily, according to a legal source.
According to judicial sources, the issue is still being looked at by French officials for possible immigration law violations, but not for human trafficking.
Another 25 passengers sought asylum in France including five minors, local officials said.
According to a person with knowledge of the investigation, the people on board were probably UAE workers headed for Nicaragua, where they planned to serve as a transit hub before continuing on to the US or Canada.
After a court decided that it would be unlawful to detain three of the passengers any longer, permission was granted for the aircraft to depart France.
During the investigation, the passengers of the flight, which was run by the Romanian business Legend Airlines, were housed at Vatry airport.
The local prefecture reported that beds, restrooms, and showers had been erected, and that police had barred journalists and other outsiders from accessing the airport.
The passengers included 11 unaccompanied minors, according to Paris prosecutors.
The Indian embassy in Paris posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that it was grateful for the “quick resolution” of the incident.
The 30 crew members were not detained. Some had handled the Dubai-Vatry leg while others were to take over for the flight to Nicaragua.
‘Mutual benefit’
Manuel Orozco, the director of migration problems at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP last month that the use of charter flights to aid migrants “is a relatively new phenomenon.”
According to Orozco, airline companies and Nicaraguan airport authorities carried out a “mutual benefit” “economic calculation.”
Citing data from US Customs and Border Protection, India’s deputy foreign minister V. Muraleedharan informed the parliament last month that about 100,000 undocumented Indian migrants have attempted to enter the US this year.
Four Indians died from freezing to death last year while attempting to enter the United States on foot from the Canadian border, drawing attention to the problem.
They were among a group of 11 people attempting the journey, with the remaining seven detained by US authorities.
Many Indian migrants seek passage to the United States for economic reasons.
However, human rights experts point out that a number of other factors are also at work, such as the severe backlog of visas and the subjugation of minority communities in India.
The Bollywood comedy-drama “Dunki,” which debuted in theaters last week, is set against the backdrop of the well-established practice of illegal Indian migration abroad.
“Dunki,” starring one of India’s most lucrative movie stars, Shah Rukh Khan, explores the different ways that Indians undertake the dangerous trek to the West with the assistance of dishonest agents and dishonest border officers.