Since Thursday, an unprecedented situation has been unfolding at the small airport of Vatry, in the Marne, 150 km from Paris. An Airbus A340 belonging to the Romanian company Legend Airlines, entirely white and without the name of any airline, was grounded for three days by the French justice system following an "anonymous report". According to this alert, the aircraft "making a stop for refueling at Vatry airport" would be carrying "Indian passengers from the United Arab Emirates and possibly to Nicaragua, likely to be victims ofhuman trafficking" by an organized gang, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Friday.
On board were 303 people of Indian nationality. Among them are "eleven unaccompanied minors who have been appointed ad hoc administrators" and "all adult passengers were interviewed" for the first time on Thursday, the Paris prosecutor's office said. They were installed in a waiting area set up by the Marne prefecture within the airport.
Three days later, administrative and judicial proceedings on an unprecedented scale were launched to clarify the situation. Le Figaro takes stock of this extraordinary case.
Two police custody in progress
The investigation, conducted under the leadership of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, is entrusted to the National Directorate of the Border Police, the Air Transport Gendarmerie and the Vitry-le-François search brigades, which are conducting interviews and verifications of the conditions and objectives of passenger transport.
In this context, two passengers were taken into custody on Thursday "in order to verify whether their role may have been different from that of the others in this transport, and once again under what conditions and with what objective," the Paris prosecutor's office said. At midday on Sunday, the measure was still in place after being extended on Saturday by 24 hours, for a maximum of 48 hours.
Hearing of the 303 Indian passengers
Since Sunday morning, seven lawyers, four liberty judges, four clerks and four Hindi interpreters are mobilized in the waiting area of Vatry airport to participate in the hearings of the 303 passengers, said on France info François Procureur, president of the Bar Association of Châlons-en-Champagne.
These hearings before liberty and detention judges (JLDs) are intended to determine whether or not Indian passengers will remain in the airport's waiting area. They may be held by the border police for only four days, but a JLD may extend the duration of the placement by eight days and, exceptionally, by a further eight days.
The court allows the plane to depart again
The court lifted the seizure of the Airbus A340 on Sunday. "This decision makes it possible to consider the rerouting of passengers placed in the waiting area," the prefecture said in a statement, without giving any details on any destination. As a result, the competent authorities of the DGAC (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) are working to obtain the necessary authorizations for the plane's take-off, which should take place by Monday morning at the latest," the Marne prefecture said in a statement.
The possibility of a departure of these Indian passengers is reinforced by the annulment by the courts of the procedure that has kept them in the airport for three days.
The first passenger allowed to leave the waiting area
After a first morning of hearings, the court on Sunday cancelled the detention of one of the 303 Indians on board the Airbus A340. This cancellation, decided by a liberty and detention judge, can be explained in particular by the waiting period of eleven hours between the moment the plane was immobilized and the time when a JLD was seized.
This constitutes "a disproportionate violation of human rights," according to the order seen by AFP. "It is very likely that the other cases will follow the same path," said François Procureur at a press briefing after the decision. The latter was concerned about "problems of cramped conditions and poor living conditions" in this waiting area created on Thursday evening. However, the Marne prefecture said individual beds, toilets and showers had been installed, as well as a "family zone to ensure parent-child privacy".
Ten asylum applications were also filed late Saturday afternoon, according to a source close to the case.