Skip to main content

Most Indians On Flight Grounded In France To Leave Tomorrow: Report

Most of the roughly 300 Indians travelling on a plane detained near Paris over suspicions of human trafficking will be free to resume their trip Monday, French judicial sources said Sunday.

The Nicaragua-bound Airbus A340 and its 303 Indian passengers have been held at Vatry airport, 150 kilometres (95 miles) east of Paris, since arriving Thursday from Dubai for refuelling after an anonymous tip-off that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking.

Four French judges began questioning the passengers Sunday to verify the "conditions and purposes" of their travel, and have two days to complete speaking to the passengers.

The judges have the authority to extend the detention, but Paris prosecutors told AFP they expect the plane and its passengers to be cleared for departure late Monday morning "at the latest," without naming a destination.

The passengers of the flight operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines are holed up in the airport. They include 11 unaccompanied minors, according to Paris prosecutors.

Two passengers have been detained since Friday "to verify" whether their role "may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives."

Ten of the passengers have requested asylum, a source close to the case said.

Tarpaulin covered the entrance hall's glass exterior and nearby administrative buildings, while police and gendarmes prevented access.

Individual beds, as well as toilets and showers, have been installed, the local prefecture said.

The Indian embassy in Paris Saturday posted on X that "embassy consular staff" are on site to working with French authorities "for the welfare" of detained passengers for an "early resolution of the situation."

The 30 crew members were not detained. Some handled the Dubai-Vatry leg and others were to take over for the flight to Managua. According to Flightradar24, Legend Airlines has just four planes.

A source close to the inquiry told AFP that some of the Indian passengers were likely workers in the United Arab Emirates who may be traveling to Nicaragua as a jumping off spot for the United States or Canada.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/QL12aFw

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's Official, Kamala Harris Is Democratic Candidate For US Election

US Vice President Kamala Harris effectively secured the Democratic party's presidential nomination Friday, confirming her remarkable rise to party standard bearer in November's showdown against Republican Donald Trump. Kamala Harris was the sole candidate on the ballot for a five-day electronic vote of nearly 4,000 party convention delegates. She will be officially crowned at a Chicago convention later this month. "I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States," Kamala Harris, 59, said on a phone-in to a party celebration after securing enough votes by the second day of the marathon vote. In the two weeks since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Kamala Harris has gained full control of the party. No other Democrats stepped forward to challenge her elevation to the top of the ticket, making her confirmation as the first Black and South Asian woman ever to secure a major party's nomination a formality. The a...

Muhammad Now The Most Popular Name For A Baby In Great Britain, Data Shows

427 years after William Shakespeare wrote it for the first time in the great "tragedy" Romeo & Juliet, England is asking the quintessential question - "What's in a name?" - And this time wondering what significance that question might hold in another 42.7 years. The Department of Statistics in the United Kingdom has revealed in its latest dataset that Muhammad is officially the most popular name for a newborn boy in England and Wales. More than 4,600 babies were registered with that name in 2023 - the highest for a boy. Muhammad was the second-most popular name in 2022 as well. Noah, once the most popular name in UK, came a distant second this year, according to the Office for National Statistics or ONS. But the staff at Great Britain's statistical office has in-fact been observing the trend for a while now. Jotting down the most popular names in the UK, besides other important statistics, it revealed that Muhammad has been among the top 10 names for...

Pak's ISI Fuelling Unrest In Bangladesh, Claims Sheikh Hasina's Son

Sheikh Hasina, who quit as prime minister and fled Bangladesh, will be back in the country as soon as democracy is restored, his son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Thursday and blamed Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI, for fuelling the ongoing unrest in the country. In an interview with PTI, Mr Joy said that although 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina would return to Bangladesh, it has not yet been decided whether she will be back as a "retired or active" politician. He also asserted that the members of the Sheikh Mujib (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) family will neither abandon its people nor leave the beleaguered Awami League in the lurch. He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for protecting his mother and appealed to India to help build international opinion and exert pressure to restore democracy in Bangladesh. "Yes, it is true that I had said she wouldn't return to Bangladesh. But a lot has changed in the last two days following continuous...