Trending 
A French court on Monday sentenced an employer and two others to jail for human trafficking in the Champagne industry, specifically for exploiting seasonal workers and housing them in appalling conditions during the 2023 grape harvest.
This ruling comes as the Champagne region faces increased scrutiny, with another ongoing investigation into the employment of Ukrainian harvesters during the same harvest, which was marked by extreme heat and the tragic deaths of four grape pickers.
“Historic” Ruling and Details of the Case
The lawyer representing the victims—50 mostly undocumented migrant harvesters from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, and Senegal—hailed the decision as “historic.”
The court sentenced the Kyrgyz woman in her forties who directed Anavim, a vine-growing servicing company, to two years in prison, with an additional two years suspended.
She had denied responsibility for the housing conditions, blaming the two other defendants involved in recruiting the harvesters. These two men, both in their thirties, received sentences of one year in prison, with two years and one year suspended, respectively.
All three were found guilty of human trafficking, a charge under French law defined as “recruiting, transporting, transferring, housing, or receiving a person to exploit them” through coerced employment, abuse of authority, exploiting vulnerability, or in exchange for payment or benefits.
The court also dissolved Anavim and ordered a wine-making cooperative that worked with the company to pay a €75,000 ($87,000) fine.
Furthermore, the three convicted individuals were each ordered to pay €4,000 to each victim.
Attorney Maxime Cessieux, representing the victims, called the ruling “exemplary.” He warned that this year’s grape harvest “will be closely scrutinised, and no one will be able to say, ‘I didn’t know, I didn’t understand, I didn’t know who these people in my vineyards were.'”
Each year, approximately 120,000 seasonal workers are hired to handpick grapes across 34,000 hectares (84,000 acres) in the Champagne region to produce the famous bubbly. In 2023, four grape harvesters died, possibly from sunstroke due to scorching heat.
