VATRY (AFP) – Ten Indian passengers among more than 300, including unaccompanied minors, on a Nicaragua-bound plane held in France over suspected human trafficking have applied for asylum, a source close to the case told AFP on Saturday.
The plane has been held at Vatry airport, 150 kilometres east of Paris, since arriving from Dubai on Thursday following an anonymous tip-off that it was carrying potential victims of human trafficking.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said there was 11 unaccompanied minors on board the Airbus jet, although regional authorities earlier pinned the number at 13.
Six of the minors also expressed an interest in applying for asylum, Aurore Opyrchal, a lawyer appointed by the region to represent some of the passengers, told AFP.
French authorities have not yet confirmed the passenger details.
The 303 passengers of the flight operated by Romanian company Legend Airlines were still in the airport’s entrance hall on Saturday morning, an AFP reporter saw.
Two passengers in custody since Friday had their detention extended Saturday evening for up to 48 hours, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
They were being held “in order to verify” whether their role “may have been different than the others in this transport, and under what conditions and with what objectives”, they said.
Investigators have checked the identity of passengers and flight crew, and are verifying the “conditions and purposes” of their travel, the prosecutor added.
