Following a four-day detention in France, the Legend Airlines (LZ) A340 plane bound for Nicaragua, carrying 303 Indian passengers, is set to depart the country on Monday. The post France Detained Plane with 300 Indians to Leave for Mumbai...
MUMBAI- Following a four-day detention in France, the Legend Airlines (LZ) Airbus A340 plane bound for Nicaragua, carrying 303 Indian passengers, is set to depart the country on Monday.
As per an airline representative, the flight is intended to repatriate many of the stranded passengers back to India.
Photo: Legend Airlines
France Detained Plane with Indians to Return
The aircraft was held during a refueling stop at Vatry airport in the Marne region of eastern France on suspicion of human trafficking.
Originating from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates, the flight was en route to Managua in Nicaragua and had 11 unaccompanied minors.
Among the passengers on board, some communicated in Hindi, while others spoke Tamil and reportedly reached out to their families via telephone. According to a source quoted in a French newspaper, ten of the passengers have sought asylum.
Legend Airlines attorney, Liliana Bakayoko, informed the Associated Press that the company aims for the plane to depart for Mumbai on Monday with as many passengers as possible, estimating that around 280 passengers should be able to board the flight.
Bakayoko asserted that Legend Airlines had no involvement in the alleged trafficking and clarified that a partner company responsible for chartering the plane was tasked with verifying the identity documents of each passenger. The airline received information about the passengers passport details just 48 hours before the scheduled flight.
The Embassy of India in France stated that its personnel were present at the airport near Paris to ensure the well-being of Indian nationals following their detention by French authorities on suspicions of human trafficking.
Photo: By Adam Moreira (AEMoreira042281) Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=79752735
Alleged Illegal Immigrants
The aircraft was permitted to depart on Monday following the interruption of an emergency hearing held at the airport. The hearing aimed to decide whether to prolong the sequestration of the Indian passengers but was halted midway due to procedural disagreements.
On Sunday, the airport was transformed into a makeshift courtroom, with judges, lawyers, and translators occupying the terminal for impromptu legal proceedings.
Francois Procureur, the head of the Châlons-en-Champagne Bar Association, expressed surprise at the unfolding events in the waiting area, emphasizing the necessity for people to be informed of their rights, which, according to him, was not adequately done. He referred to the hurried airport hearings as unprecedented.
A statement from the Marne administration mentioned that the seizure order for the airliner was lifted on Sunday morning, enabling the possibility of rerouting the passengers in the waiting area.
In a separate context, Indian citizens were apprehended 41,770 times for illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico in the governments budget year ending on September 30, more than double the previous years figure of 18,308.
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