Nicaragua flight row

A Nicaragua-bound chartered plane, carrying mostly Indians, has landed in Mumbai after remaining grounded in France for four days on suspicion of human trafficking. The French authorities are conducting a probe, even as India has thanked France for a ‘quick resolution’ of the problem. The flight, operated by a private Romanian company, had taken off from Dubai and landed at France’s Vatry airport for a technical stopover. On a tip-off, the French police intervened and questioned the crew, besides detaining two passengers for their alleged role in illegal immigration. Notably, the fliers included 11 unaccompanied minors.

The fact that several passengers have sought asylum in France indicates that they have resorted to Plan B after their attempt to reach Nicaragua — and then most probably enter the US through illegal means — was foiled. Nicaragua, the largest nation in Central America, is popular among desperate migrants due to the perceived ease of procuring travel documents. According to the US Customs and Border Patrol, more than 96,000 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in 2022-23 — a 51.61 per cent rise compared to the previous financial year. Over 41,000 of them tried their luck via the Mexican border.

The notorious donkey/dunki route is fraught with one peril after another. In 2019, a six-year-old Punjabi girl had died of heatstroke in a scorching Arizona desert after her mother left her with other migrants to search for water. Unscrupulous travel agents have no qualms about putting lives at risk, as shown chillingly by the Malta (1996) and Panama (2016) boat tragedies. The Indian authorities need to get to the bottom of the murky matter flagged by France. Close coordination among the immigration agencies of India, the US, Central American nations and other stakeholders is a must to crack down on international cartels which are thriving on human trafficking.