French agencies uncovered a potential human trafficking flight to Nicaragua

French newspaper Le Monde reported late Monday that officials at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport are awaiting the arrival of the Romanian-origin Legend Airlines chartered flight from Dubai to Nicargua, which was grounded in France during a refuelling stop at France’s Vatry airport near Paris. A previous warning that the passengers were “likely victims of human trafficking” led to the plane being stopped. Human traffickers have been using chartered aircraft, according to a Times of India article, to transport undocumented immigrants to Nicaragua, where offshore handlers arrange for their admission into the United States through the famed “donkey” route—the border with Mexico.

The plane’s departure from France comes after nearly four days of uncertainty over the plane’s fate, amid claims that several of people onboard had requested refuge in France and refused to be put on the trip back to their home countries.

“The situation is confusing,” Liliana Bakayoko, legal counsel for Legend Airlines, allegedly told a French TV channel and radio network earlier today. “Some of the passengers were unhappy… because they wanted to continue their journey to Nicaragua as planned.”

Earlier in the day, she informed PTI that the jet will depart France at 10 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. IST) and arrive late Monday or early Tuesday. She informed Le Monde that the appropriate permissions had been received.

People conversed in Tamil and Hindi

According to the NDTV story, the airline’s legal counsel said at the time that only 200-250 passengers had agreed to return. The aforementioned, she claimed, would include people who were not in police custody or who had not applied for asylum in France. A dozen more have applied for asylum; their current status is unknown.

Though there has been no official confirmation, it is thought that at least two passengers are among those who were not permitted to depart and have been held.

According to Le Monde, the two might be prosecuted with conspiring to facilitate unauthorised foreigners enter the nation. According to reports, several people spoke Tamil and some Hindi.

The two people who were not allowed to depart were allegedly asked to “verify” whether their involvement “may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives.”

French authorities smelled something suspicious

According to the Times Of India, the traffickers portray these flights as transporting Indian tourists. However, because these flights were only one-way, they escaped the attention of law authorities.

The planes that went for Nicaragua never returned with passengers, indicating that something suspicious was going on. The plane that was grounded in France on Thursday/Friday was allegedly transporting illegal immigrants, according to an anonymous tip. The inquiry has been taken over by Junalco, France’s national anti-organized crime organisation.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in France stated that officials have requested consular access and are examining the situation. According to police and government sources, the crime’s ringleader, Shashi Kiran Reddy of Hyderabad, had been frequently arranging for planes to Nicaragua that landed at Vatry airport, 150 kilometres from Paris, for refuelling.

What exactly is a ‘Dunki’ or ‘Donkey’ route? 

“In the past two months, Reddy sent nearly 800 illegal immigrants to Nicaragua, showing them as tourists. Earlier, he sent them on 50-seater flights that halted at Vatry airport. However, recently, French authorities, refused to allow one such flight to halt at Vatry airport and it returned to Dubai. So, Reddy arranged for an aircraft with 300 passengers, assuming it will be allowed to halt and refuel,” a person close to the situation allegedly told TOI.

“This particular aircraft had accommodated even those passengers who could not make it to Nicaragua earlier. However, when it landed at Vatry airport on December 21, it was not allowed to take off,” the source told TOI.

And how did the travellers handle the rest of their voyage and assimilation? According to the source, once the aeroplane landed in Nicaragua, the illegal immigrants would either drive 3,100 km to Mexico or take a boat to Miami via Cancun and Havana. The latest Bollywood film ‘Dunki,’ starring Shah Rukh Khan and Vicky Kaushal, shows this risky road that many desperate illegal immigrants unfortunately follow, tempting hazards such as thievery, rape, sex trafficking, and even murder.

According to a report in The Hindu, V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, used statistics from US Customs and Border Protection and stated that US officers encountered around 1 lakh illegal Indian migrants this year. This pattern of thousands of Indians attempting to enter the US illegally is new; it has occurred in the last four years, he told the House in response to a query from the Rajya Sabha.

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