A plane intended to connect the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua and carrying 303 Indian passengers has been grounded since Thursday at Vatry airport (Marne) due to “suspicion of human trafficking,” the Prefecture of the Republic announced on Friday, December 22. Marne and the Paris prosecutor’s office, which opened an investigation.
Friday evening, two passengers were questioned in police custody, announced the Paris prosecutor’s office. The immobilization of the aircraft follows “an anonymous report” according to which this plane “was carrying Indian passengers (…) likely to be victims of human trafficking”, the Paris prosecutor’s office informed the Agency France-Presse (AFP).
This A340, from the Romanian company Legend Airlines, “had to make a technical stopover” at Vatry, added the Marne prefecture in a press release. According to a source close to the matter, who specifies that the plane stopped to refuel, the Indian passengers could have wanted to go to Central America in order to then try to enter the United States or Canada illegally.
Hearings and verification in progress
The National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime (Junalco) “resumed the investigation to verify whether any elements would corroborate the suspicion of trafficking in human beings by an organized gang, a crime punishable by twenty years of criminal imprisonment and 3 million euros fine,” adds the prosecution. The hearings are expected to continue until at least Friday evening, according to a source close to the matter.
“The national directorate of the border police [in particular Oltim, Office for the fight against illicit trafficking of migrants], the air transport gendarmerie and the Vitry-le-François research brigade have been contacted and are carrying out hearings and verifications of the conditions and objectives of passenger transport”, also explains the prosecution.
By two successive decrees published Thursday evening and Friday morning, the prefect of Marne temporarily extended the waiting area for foreigners to the airport reception hall. Passengers there have, according to the prefecture, “individual beds”, after having initially been kept on the plane, where they were able to “eat”.
Vatry airport, a small aerodrome located around twenty kilometers from Châlons-en-Champagne and 150 km east of Paris, welcomed 62,000 passengers in 2022, mainly via low-cost airlines, according to the Union of French Airports.
It explains on its website that it offers regular flights to Marrakech and Porto and, more occasionally, to Faro, Madeira and Jordan. The operation “forced the authorities to divert Ryanair’s 9:40 a.m. Marrakech-Vatry flight” scheduled for Friday, according to the prefecture.