The head of the champagne industry, 2 others, were imprisoned for human trafficking, and they claim that they are treating workers in France “like slaves”

On Monday, a French court imprisoned three people on charges of trafficking in human beings in the champagne industry, and the seasonal workers took advantage of and housed them in horrific circumstances.

The Shambania region is subject to difficult scrutiny, with another investigation looking to use Ukrainian workers during the same harvest of 2023, which was characterized by exceptional heat and the death of four grapes.

A lawyer for the victims – more than 50 immigrant workers who are not documented by Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal – said the court made a “historic” decision.

The victims, who said they were treated “like slaves.”

“People were really working in bad conditions, and this decision is fair,” said Amadou Diallo, 39, from Senegal.

The workers, all of whom were not documented, were found during the September 2023 harvest who live in narrow and illegal conditions in a building in Nesle-Le -Repons in the heart of the country of champagne, BBC mentioned.

The court sentenced an Anavim service company, Kyrgyz woman, in her forties, years behind bars, and two other years’ suspension.

She denied that she was responsible for housing conditions, and blamed other defendants suspected of recruiting harvest.

The court sentenced the other two, both men in the thirties of them, to a year in prison, along with the suspended conditions. One of them is a man from the country of Georgia and the other is French, the BBC said.

All three were convicted of human trafficking – they were defined by French law as “recruitment, transfer, transfer, housing, or a person to exploit them”, by coercion employment, offending the position of power, abuse of the weak situation or in exchange of payment or benefits.

Some workers were recruited through the WhatsApp group message to the Soninke community in West Africa who live in Paris, which promised “good work” in the Champagne region, the BBC said.

Anavim director has also been convicted of crimes, including hiding workers’ work.

The court in Chalons-Ene Champhani made the service company and ordered cooperation in the wine industry that it worked on to pay a fine of $ 87,000.

The court ordered the three guilt to pay 4000 euros for each victim.

A lawyer called Anavim’s “non -fair” sentence and said that there would be an appeal.

“My client is the ideal perpetrator for an industry that has long turned into her own practices,” said Bruno Keistl.

“No food, no water, nothing”

Maxim Cisio, the victim’s lawyer, said that the 2025 harvest “will be examined closely and no one would be able to say,” I did not know, I did not understand, I did not know who these people are in vineyards. “

In September 2023, the labor inspector found that the residence of Anavim to grape scientists southwest of Rims “undermines their safety, health and dignity.

The residence was closed later by the governorate, which referred to the temporary bed and “the horrific state of toilets, bathrooms and common areas.

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

“They put us in an abandoned building, without food, no water, and nothing.”

“I never thought that the people who made champagne would put us in a place that even animals would not accept,” Kanoye Jakario, 44, told the BBC.

The comedic champagne, which represents wine and champagne homes, was a prosecutor in trial.

“You are not playing with the health and safety of seasonal workers. We also do not play with a name for us,” said the Trade Association.

The CGT Union said that the punishment was not enough.

“What we ask is to reduce the harvest” in the areas where crimes were committed, so it is no longer used to produce champagne, “said Jose Blanco, Secretary -General of CGT.

Every year, about 120,000 seasonal workers are recruited to choose cultivated grapes on an area of 84,000 acres in the champagne region.

In 2023, four harvest died, and perhaps a sunstroke after working in the incendiary heat.

The service provider and its manager will be tried in November on suspicion of his presence of 40 Ukrainian in inappropriate conditions.