Boss of the Champagne industry, 2 others imprisoned for the trafficking of human beings, dealing with workers in France “as slaves”

A French court imprisoned three people on Monday for the trafficking of human beings in the Champagne industry, operating seasonal workers and staying in appalling conditions.

The Champagne region is under difficult control, another survey examining the use of Ukrainian workers during the same harvest in 2023, which was marked by exceptional warmth and the death of four grape pickers.

A lawyer for victims – more than 50 undocumented migrant workers from Mali, Mauritania, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal – said that the Court had made a “historic” decision.

The victims, who said they were treated “like slaves”, also praised the decision.

“People worked in very poor conditions, and this decision is fair,” said Amadou Diallo, a 39 -year -old man from Senegal.

The workers, all undocumented migrants, were found during the harvest of September 2023 living in cramped conditions and non-hygienic in a building in Nesle-le-Pénons in the heart of the Pays de Champagne, the BBC reported.

The court sentenced the director of a service company called Anavim, a kyrgyzer woman in her forties, at two years behind bars, and two more suspended years.

She had denied being responsible for the housing conditions and blamed the two other defendants suspected of recruiting the crops.

The court sentenced the other two, the two men in the thirties, one year in prison, as well as the conditions suspended. One is a man in the country of Georgia and the other is a Frenchman, the BBC reported.

All three were found guilty of the trafficking in human beings – defined by French law as “recruiting, transporting, transferring, accommodating or receiving a person to exploit them”, by a forced employment, abusing a post of authority, abusing a vulnerable situation or in exchange for payment or services.

Some workers have been recruited via a WhatsApp Group message for the ethnic community of West African Soninke living in Paris, which has promised a “well-paid work” in the Champagne region, reported the BBC.

The director of Anavim was also found guilty of crimes, including concealment of the employment of workers.

The Chalons-en-Champagne court dissolved the service company and ordered a vinification cooperative with which he worked to pay a fine of $ 87,000.

The court ordered the three culprits to pay 4,000 euros each with each victim.

A lawyer for the director of Anavim called for the “unfair” decision and said there would be an appeal.

“My client is the ideal culprit for an industry that has long looked at his own practices,” said Bruno Questel.

“No food, no water, no nothing”

Maxime Cessieux, lawyer for the victims, said that the 2025 harvest “will be closely examined and that no one could say” I did not know, I did not understand, I did not know who these people were in my vineyards “.”

In September 2023, the labor inspectorate found that the accommodation provided by Anavim for the pickers southwest of Reims “seriously confused” their safety, their health and their dignity.

The accommodation was then closed by the prefecture, which had indicated the makeshift bedding and “the appalling state of the toilets, toilets and common areas”.

Camara Sikou, one of the victims, told court that workers had been treated “as slaves”.

“They put us in an abandoned building, without food, no water, nothing,” added Modibo Sidibe, who said that the workers were in the fields from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“I never thought that people who were doing champagne would put us in a place that even animals would not accept,” said Kanouitié Djakariayou, 44, at La Croix, according to the BBC.

Champagne Comitite, which represents vines and champagne houses, was a applicant in the trial.

“You are not playing with the health and safety of seasonal workers. We are not playing with the image of our name either,” said the professional association.

The CGT Champagne union said the punishment was not sufficient.

“What we are asking for is the demarcation of the harvest” in the areas where the offenses have been committed so that it can no longer be used to produce Champagne, said Jose Blanco, secretary general of the CGT.

Each year, around 120,000 seasonal workers are recruited to choose the grapes cultivated on 84,000 acres in the Champagne region.

In 2023, four harvesters died, perhaps the result of a sunburn after working in a hot heat.

A service provider and its director will be tried in November, suspected of having hosted 40 Ukrainians under unfit conditions.