A human trafficking trial has commenced in the eastern city of Reims, with conditions for grape-pickers in France’s champagne industry at its center.
Three individuals—a Frenchman, a Georgian guy, and a Kyrgyz woman—are charged with abusing over fifty seasonal workers, the most of whom are from west Africa.
During the 2023 September harvest, the workers—all undocumented migrants—were discovered living in filthy, claustrophobic conditions in a building at Nesle-le-Repons, southwest of Reims, in the center of champagne region.
The West African Soninke ethnic minority in Paris had recruited them through a Whatsapp group post that offered “well-paid work” in the Champagne area.
