The plane, immobilized since Thursday December 21 at Vatry airport, in Marne, 150 kilometers from Paris, took off again Monday December 25 towards Bombay, with 276 Indian passengers on board out of the initial 303, the two passengers suspected of being smugglers having for their part been left free by the courts. 25 others, including two minors, are currently remaining in France after having made an asylum request, which will be analyzed at Charles-de-Gaulle airport, the Marne prefecture said in a press release.
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The airbus A340-313 of the small company Legend Airlines took off for the Indian city of Bombay. It is not in this city where the passengers had planned to land when leaving Dubai at the end of last week. The plane was scheduled to reach Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. What seemed like a step before possible illegal entry into the United States.
The plane had made a stop in France to refill its tanks.
But this simple technical stopover turned into a long immobilization. There was a suspicion of organized human trafficking. It was an anonymous call which prompted checks by the French authorities.
Read alsoFrance: a plane carrying 303 Indians immobilized on suspicion of human trafficking
The two Indians suspected of being smugglers, born in 2000 and 1984, were not indicted, but placed under the more favorable status of assisted witnesses and therefore emerged free on Monday after their interrogation before an investigating judge Parisian. The Paris prosecutor’s office had requested their placement in pre-trial detention. Me Salomé Cohen, lawyer for one of the two accused, praised to AFP “the extremely precise and careful reading of the investigating judge who was able to get rid of the media coverage of this case”.
Indian immigration is booming in the United States
The first information came this Sunday via the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Indian nationals are said to be predominantly poor and from the states of Gujarat and Punjab. Which refers to a reality well known to Indians, because these are two states where there is a lot of emigration, particularly to the United States, reports our correspondent in Bangalore, Como Bastin.
Less publicized than Mexican immigration, Indian immigration is booming in the United States. To give you an idea, US customs caught 20,000 illegal Indians in 2020, compared to nearly 100,000 in 2023. They are now the third largest population of illegal workers there.
Read alsoThe plane arrested in France with Indian passengers, a case that resonates in India