A charter plane grounded in France amid a human trafficking probe has been sent on its way, with passengers heading to Mumbai, authorities say.
The plane, carrying 303 Indian citizens, was blocked inside a rural French airport for four days after police received an anonymous tip-off that it could be carrying victims of human trafficking.
Those grounded in France during the exceptional ordeal, included a 21-month-year-old baby and several unaccompanied minors.
The Legend Airlines A340 plane stopped on Thursday for refuelling in Vatry en route from Fujairah Airport in the United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua.
Prosecutors would not comment on whether the passengers’ ultimate destination could have been the US, which has seen a surge in Indians crossing the Mexico-US border this year.
The flight has now set off again, but regional administration said that only 276 of the original 303 passengers were en route to Mumbai, with 25 requesting asylum in France.
Those who remained were transferred to a special zone in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport for asylum seekers, it said.
The remaining two passengers were initially detained as part of a human trafficking investigation but were released on Monday after appearing before a judge, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The judge named them as ‘assisted witnesses’ to the case, a special status under French law that allows time for further investigation and could lead to eventual charges or to the case being dropped.
French authorities are working to determine the aim of the original flight, and opened a judicial inquiry into activities by an organised criminal group helping foreigners enter or stay in a country illegally, the prosecutor’s office said.
It did not specify on Monday whether human trafficking is still suspected.
By the UN’s definition, human trafficking is ‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit’.
Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held inside the airport for the four days.
Then it turned into a makeshift courtroom on Sunday as judges, lawyers and interpreters filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine the next steps.
Some lawyers at Sunday’s hearings protested over authorities’ handling of the situation and the passengers’ rights, suggesting that police and prosecutors overreacted to the anonymous tip.
The Indian embassy posted its thanks on X, formerly Twitter, to French officials for ensuring that the Indians could go home.
Foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations in France, after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that to eight days.
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko said some passengers did not want to go to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua.
The airline has denied any role in possible human trafficking.
The US government has designated Nicaragua as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.
Nicaragua has also been used as a migratory springboard for people fleeing poverty or conflict because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries.
Sometimes charter flights are used for the journey.
