A charter plane sequestered while carrying 303 Indians to Nicaragua on Monday left the French airport where it has been grounded for four days for a human trafficking investigation.
A lawyer for the airline said the plane was to take many of the stranded passengers back to India.
Local authorities worked throughout Sunday on formalities to allow some passengers to leave the small Vatry Airport in eastern France, regional prosecutor Annick Browne told The Associated Press news agency.
All of the passengers, including a 21-month-old child, had been stuck in the airport terminal since Thursday.
Two passengers were detained as part of a French special investigation into suspected human trafficking by an organized criminal group.
Several others requested asylum in France, according to the local administration. Prosecutors said 11 passengers were unaccompanied minors who were put under special administrative care.
The A340 plane Legend Airlines, a Romanian company, stopped on Thursday for refuelling in Vatry en route from Fujairah airport in United Arab Emirates for Managua, Nicaragua.
It was grounded by police based on an anonymous tip that it could be carrying trafficking victims.
The airport was requisitioned by police for days, and then turned into a makeshift courtroom on Sunday as judges, lawyers and translators filled the terminal to carry out emergency hearings to determine whether to keep the Indians sequestered any longer.
Plane grounded in France with 303 Indians: Legend Airlines expresses cooperation during probe, says 'Not committed any wrongdoing' pic.twitter.com/nw5aqsmnz2
— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) December 23, 2023
The hearings were halted midway because of a dispute over the procedure used to block the Indians in the airport.
The seizure order for the airliner was lifted on Sunday morning, a decision that “makes it possible to contemplate the passengers in the waiting area being rerouted,″ according to a statement from the Marne administration.
The French Civil Aviation Authority then set about trying to get the necessary permissions for the plane to take off once again. The prefecture said the aircraft was expected to leave no later than Monday morning.
Legend Airlines lawyer Liliana Bakayoko told AP that the company hoped the plane could head to Mumbai, India, on Monday with as many passengers as possible.
Meals and showers
She estimated around 280 passengers should be able to leave. The prosecutor and regional administration could not confirm an exact figure.
Local officials, medics and volunteers installed cots and ensured regular meals and showers for those held in the airport.
But lawyers at Sunday's hearings protested at the authorities' overall handling of the situation.
‘’I'm surprised at how things unfolded in the waiting area," François Procureur, the head of the Châlons-en-Champagne Bar Association, told BFM television.
"People should have been informed of their rights, and clearly that was not the case.''
In France, foreigners can be held up to four days in a transit zone for police investigations after which a special judge must rule on whether to extend that for eight days.
(With newswires)
