France grounds flight carrying 303 Indians for suspected human trafficking

France on Friday grounded a charter flight carrying 303 Indians from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua on the suspicion of human trafficking, Reuters reported.

Authorities in France have launched a judicial investigation into the conditions and purposes of the journey the passengers had undertaken, after being tipped off by an anonymous informant that the flight was carrying passengers “likely to be victims of human trafficking”, AFP reported.

The Airbus A340 aircraft operated by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines had landed at the Vatry airport in the Marne region of eastern France for a technical stopover.

A unit specialising in organised crime arrested two men for questioning, the Paris public prosecution office said.

“Identity checks are being carried out on the 303 passengers and on the cabin crew,” AFP quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying. “They [unit specialising in organised crime] were also checking the conditions in which the passengers were being transported and the purpose of their journey.”

The passengers include minors, AFP reported.

The passengers may have planned to travel to Central America to try to illegally enter Canada or the United States, AFP quoted unidentified officials as saying.

While Mexicans remain the largest groups illegally entering the United States, the number of Indians doing so has risen significantly in recent years.

Nearly 97,000...

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