Some passengers didn't want to return, they paid for Nicaragua: 'Donkey' flight lawyer
Legend Airlines lawyer said neither Nicaragua nor the UAE was probably ready to take the chartered flight and only India was willing to help.
Liliana Bakayoko, the lawyer of Legend Airlines whose plane was grounded in France over an allegation of probable human trafficking, said some passengers did not want to return to India because they had paid for a tourism trip to Nicaragua, news agency AP reported. The chartered plane carrying mostly Indians was stopped and 276 passengers were sent back to India. On Tuesday, they reached Mumbai. The Legen Airlines which carried them from the UAE on December 22 denied involvement in any wrongdoing and said some of the passengers had return tickets and hotel reservations.
303 people on board, 25 sought asylum in France
25 including two minors among the passengers sought asylum in France and the French authorities held two for allegedly being the facilitators of the supposed illegal immigration. The 25 were transferred to a special zone in Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport for processing. Out of the 276 who returned to India, about two-thirds were from Punjab, 25% from Gujarat and the rest from several different states.
What was the age group of the passengers?
According to an HT report, around 150 passengers were in their mid-20s, and around 70 in their 30s. Rest were spread across all age groups.
Who organised the alleged donkey flight?
Legend Airlines lawyer told Indian Express that a non-European company booked the flight but they won't disclose the whether it is Indian or not.
Most of the passengers reached Dubai in the last two months on work or tourist visas and from there they boarded the 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.
En route to Nicaragua, the plane stopped in France's Vatry Airport for refuelling when the police grounded te plane based on anonymous tp that it could be carrying human trafficking victims. The passengers were kept in the airport as it became a makeshift courtroom accommodating judges and lawyers to hear the case. The plane was authorised to leave on Monday.
Why did the plane come to India, not UAE or Nicaragua?
Liliana Bakayoko told Indian Express that most probably the Nicaguan authorities did not allow the passengers and neither did the UAE. "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," the lawyer said.