The two Indians who were initially believed to be traffickers are not being prosecuted but have been granted “key witness” status and released by the investigator. The prosecution had requested their pre-trial detention
An aircraft that had been grounded since Thursday in northeastern France on suspicion of being involved in human trafficking, departed today for Mumbai, carrying 276 of its 303 Indian passengers.
The two passengers suspected of being traffickers were released. Another 25, including the five minors (and not two as initially reported by the authorities), will remain in France for the time being after submitting a request to be granted asylum. This request will be examined at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, as specified by the authorities of the Marne region.
After boarding was completed, a process that took several hours, the Airbus A340 of the small, Romanian company Legend Airlines departed at 15:35 (Greece time) from Vatri airport bound for Mumbai.
The two Indians who were initially believed to be traffickers are not being prosecuted but have been granted “key witness” status and released by the investigator. The prosecution had requested their pre-trial detention.
The charge of human trafficking is unfounded, a source said close to the case, explaining that the 303 Indians voluntarily boarded the plane bound for Nicaragua. The plane, which had taken off from Dubai, was initially only going to make a brief refueling stop at Batri. But it was grounded after an “anonymous tip” that the passengers were victims of human trafficking by a criminal organization. In their statements most of the Indians told the French authorities that they wanted to go to Nicaragua for tourism.
Another source said that the Indians, who were likely workers in the United Arab Emirates, may have planned to travel to Central America to then try to cross illegally into the US or Canada.
“We don’t know if it’s human trafficking, the transport of illegal immigrants or neither… But we detained 303 people, men, women and children, at an airport for three days and three nights. It is impressive. If they are really victims, it is not normal to just send them back to another country,” commented Genevieve Colas, the coordinator of Secours Catholique-Caritas, a collective that fights human trafficking.
“We thank the French government and Vatry airport for quickly resolving the issue,” the Indian embassy in France commented in a post on the X platform.
Source :Skai
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