Paris, Dec 25 (EFE) – The plane held for four days in France departed Monday for Mumbai with 276 passengers of Indian nationality, out of the 303 who were originally traveling from Dubai to Managua before the aircraft was stopped in a technical layover, according to officials.
The plane took off from Vatry airport (about 140 kilometers, 86 miles, from Paris) at about 2:40 pm local time, officials said.
The first destination is Dubai, the original point of departure, so that some passengers can disembark, and then the plane will continue to Mumbai.
25 passengers, including two unaccompanied minors, remained in France after expressing their intention to request asylum, the prefecture of the Marne department detailed.
Additionally, two passengers were arrested on Saturday for alleged involvement in human trafficking; after their arrest authorities seized from them the passports of the other passengers and a considerable amount of cash.
On Monday, both appeared before a Paris judge who released them and placed them under the statute of protected witnesses, the Paris prosecutor’s office reported.
About fifty passengers insisted on traveling to Nicaragua, the original destination of the flight, arguing that they had contracted a tourist trip. However, they finally were dissuaded by a diplomat from the Indian Embassy in Paris and the French authorities.
Legend Airlines’ lawyer in France, Liliana Bakayoko, told the BFM channel that “the flight was scheduled for India because the country from where the plane left, the United Arab Emirates, did not accept the return to its territory,” however, a first stop in Dubai was eventually added.
The embassy thanked the French government and the Vatry airport for their work in “resolving this situation, which allowed the Indian passengers to return home.”
The Airbus A340 of the Romanian charter company Legend Airlines arrived in Vatry early Thursday afternoon for a technical stopover on its way from Dubai to Managua and was detained by French authorities, who had received an anonymous tip about a possible case of human trafficking.
Since then the airport had remained closed and under police surveillance, and the passengers were housed in the lobby with individual sleeping arrangements and were provided with meals, hygiene products and medical care.
French authorities had originally planned for the plane to take off earlier, but the flight was delayed because of the passengers insisting on traveling to Nicaragua.
On Sunday afternoon, French judges authorized the return of the plane after determining that keeping the passengers at the airport since Thursday did not comply with the country’s legal procedures.
According to a judge consulted by AFP, the passengers were initially detained for several hours without knowing why and without being informed of their rights within a reasonable time, which, according to the judge, constituted a violation of their rights.
The French authorities were considering the hypothesis that the passengers could be Indian workers in the UAE trying to join the flow of migrants from several continents trying to reach the United States or Canada via the Central American route. EFE
rcf/fpa/mcd
