Grounded plane with Indians returns to Mumbai: What happens now?

French authorities, on Tuesday, allowed a charter jet carrying around 276 passengers, largely Indians, to fly to India, after detaining it at the Vatry airport near Paris over allegations of human trafficking for four days. The flight, originally destined for Nicaragua, landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai around 3.30 am with 15 crew members and 276 passengers, reports The Hindu quoting airport officials. The passengers were subjected to rigorous interrogation and verification by the authorities from the Immigration Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation. Reports reveal that some of them were from Punjab, some from Haryana and some from Gujarat. Though the reason for their travel remain unknown, the Gujarat Police has formed teams to unearth a suspected illegal immigration network involving “agents” and will coordinate with the passengers of a plane that has landed in Mumbai from France, a senior official said. How Gujarat police plans to probe agents behind illegal immigration? Among 276 on board, 21 passengers who have returned to India are from Gujarat, Sanjay Kharat, Superintendent of Police, CID crime, told ANI. “The CID crime wants to take action against agents who had promised help to the victims to enter the US and other countries (illegally). We have formed four teams which will get information from the victims regarding promises made to them by these agents,” Superintendent of Police, CID (Crime), Sanjay Kharat said, as per a PTI report. [caption id=“attachment_13549242” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A charter plane carrying Indians to Nicaragua was authorised Sunday to leave a French airport where it has been grounded for four days for a human trafficking investigation. AP[/caption] He said most of the passengers on the chartered plane that returned from France were from Banaskantha, Patan, Mehsana and Anand districts in Gujarat. “Police will coordinate with the passengers when they reach Gujarat from Mumbai to find out the agents and agencies involved and whether documents provided to them to migrate to the US and other countries were forged,” he said. **Also Read: What led to France grounding a plane with over 300 Indians?** The official said they will also try to find out how many people have been flown abroad this way, and who all are seeking to travel in this manner. What do we know about the agents involved? The CID has so far received “raw information” regarding the agents involved in the incident and will be able to find out more only after questioning the passengers concerned, he said. Kharat said different agents involved in illegal immigration work in tandem. “The agents working at the village and district levels are small players controlled by a kingpin who works at the international level,” he added. **Also Read: Who is the Hyderabad man, likely to be mastermind behind Nicaragua-bound flight?** The Gujarat police will investigate and get a clear picture of how they operate, he said. “Different agencies use different modus operandi based on the requirements of persons seeking to migrate like whether they require forged documents etc, and rates are fixed accordingly,” the SP said, adding the victims will be questioned and police will reach the kingpin. Who are the passengers? As reported by PTI, the French authorities were notified that, of the 276 passengers on the charter jet heading for Mumbai, 25 — two of them were minors — had sought for asylum and wished to stay on French territory. A report from Hindustan Times stated that about 150 of the passengers were in their mid-20s and about 70 were in their 30s. Rest were spread across all age groups. Also Read: SRK’s Dunki is about ‘donkey flights’: What’s this illegal immigration method? The majority of travellers arrived in Dubai over the last two months, either as tourists or on business, and then took a flight to Nicaragua. The two passengers who were initially detained on the allegations that they facilitated the alleged trafficking were released after they appeared before a judge. Some passengers did not want to return to India since they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua, according to Liliana Bakayoko, the attorney for Legend Airlines, whose aircraft was grounded in France, according to the news agency AP. [caption id=“attachment_13549232” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The aircraft, an Airbus A340, landed in Mumbai shortly after 4 am, the official said. It had taken off from Vatry airport near Paris around 2.30 pm local time. PTI[/caption] Legend Airlines, the airline that flew them from the United Arab Emirates on 22 December, acknowledged that some of the passengers had hotel reservations and return tickets, but otherwise denied any wrongdoing. The lawyer for Legend Airlines informed Indian Express that a non-European firm had made the reservation, without revealing that if it was an Indian company or not. The aircraft was refuelling at Vatry Airport in France on its way to Nicaragua when the authorities halted it on the basis of an anonymous tip that it might be transporting victims of human trafficking. As the airport was transformed into a temporary courtroom with judges and solicitors present to hear the case, the travellers were detained there. Monday was approved as the plane’s departure day. In Mumbai, immigration authorities enquired from some of the 276 passengers, an official said, adding no passenger was detained and they were allowed to leave the airport by 11.30 am on Tuesday. Why did the airline fly to India rather than the UAE or Nicaragua? Liliana Bakayoko told Indian Express that it’s likely that neither the UAE nor the Nicaguan authorities permitted the passengers. “And the only country that expressed the willingness to help and to act quickly, to allow these people to go somewhere else and not to remain for a long time under these absolutely inappropriate conditions, was India,” added the lawyer. The happening throws light on the growing trend of people attempting to enter the United States illegally, with Nicaragua emerging as a favourite destination for asylum seekers. According to US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data, 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in the year 2023, which is a 51.61 per cent increase over the previous year. Of these, 41,770 attempted to enter across the Mexican land border, reports ABP. With inputs from PTI