French champagne managers face human traffic trial

In France champagne businesses are at the heart of the human trafficking trial opened in the city of East Rehims.

Three people – Kyrgyzmen woman, Georgia and a French man, jump to exploit more than 50 years of seasonal employees, especially in western Africa.

Employees – All Unvisible Migrants – September 2023, 20023 were found in a building in Nes girls-le-Repons, in a building in the southwest of Reims.

Through a WhatsApp group they were hired for the ethnic Basque communities in the western African Soninke, as he ordered the “well-paid work” in the Champagne region.

The ages of 16 and 65, 48 men and nine women came from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Many go to Thursday trial.

“We shouted in Russian and entered us into this broken house, the mattresses on the ground,” Kanouitié Djakariayou, 44, La Croix newspapers.

“There was no clean water, and the only food was rice and rotten sandwiches.

“I never thought that the people who champagne would put it in a place that animals would not accept it.”

“What we really experienced. We traumatized experiences. And we have no psychological support, because you don’t have any rights,” did the Local Newspaper Union.

A week later, local residents, work inspectors visited the scene and documented conditions “occupants were severe offenses of health and dignity,” Annick Browne’s word fiscal.

The prosecution said that they were living and eating outside, unprotected from the elements; The toilets were dirty; Showers were inappropriate with hot water only; And the electrical security risk were.

In addition, migrants worked for ten hours a day for 30 minutes for lunch, transporting to the vineyards on the back of the trucks. They did not have written contracts, and they had no “relational relations for work” according to the prosecutor.

“The defendant had absolutely excluded for human dignity,” Maxime Cessieux said, which represents some migrants.

Svetlana G. 44-year-old suspected female suspicious female hiring agency specializes in finding the work of the wine industry. The other two were his members.

In addition to charging human trafficking, the woman is also accused of influencing work, without permission to use foreigners, inappropriate salary and weak people in inappropriate conditions. Three cream prisons are convicted of great seven years and fines.

The case has raised questions about employee exploitation in 6 million euros (£ 5.1 million) in the champagne industry. If you need to manually receive them with all grapes, producers trust around 120,000 years of farmers in all falls, many of which are contracted through agencies.

In 2023, six grape pickers died, in the regions of Champagne and Beaujolais, and in recent years there were two other criminal cases that the actors have been abused by migrants crop.

The unions said that some champagne houses are hidden behind Middlemen, and the law wants to change the law to lose “champagne” if they have used illegal work indirectly.

“Unable to use Champagne’s grapes using humans misery,” said Jose Blanco of the CGT Union.

But the main body representing champagne producers – Comité Champagne – said the abuse of employees had rarely happened and stopped immediately when he stopped.

Comité is represented as a civil plaintiff to recognize “unacceptable” damage to the marks “.