On Wednesday, December 18, the criminal court of Agen, in Lot-et-Garonne, will look into a case of human trafficking involving around twenty foreign workers, exploited and without pay for months. An audience which highlights a system which sees young people recruited directly in Morocco to work in agriculture in France, in the hope of a better future.
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Two years after the events, Osama has not forgotten anything about his arrival in France. In June 2022, the young 20-year-old Moroccan landed in Bordeaux full of hope, recruited for a contract of several months on a vegetable plantation in Lot-et-Garonne. “I was a really happy young man, I felt good, I was very motivated,” he still remembers. But everything changes quickly. When he arrives at the home of his operator, who is supposed to accommodate him, Osama becomes disillusioned. “There were her children and workers in a house in very poor condition. She took me to a room, dirty, where there were six people. I wanted to leave, but it was my first day.”
The following days, the young employee quickly realized the task to be accomplished. “We started work at 8 a.m., without safety gear, in shorts and a t-shirt. I worked every day, between 9 and 11 hours a day, with temperatures reaching 36 degrees. Without food and without money , they decided for me what I was going to do during the day, I had no room for maneuver.”
Forced to work in extreme heat, Osama’s health deteriorates. “One day, I have a very bad headache, I ask to see a doctor, but I am told to sleep a little to get better, because here I am not allowed.” Finally, the young worker will walk several kilometers on foot to take the bus to the nearest hospital. “After several scans, a doctor gave me a paper to buy medicine, but I couldn’t buy it as I didn’t have money.”
You don’t have the right to stop, you don’t have the right to be tired, you don’t say anything. You don’t sleep, or an hour or two hours a night. And every day you start again.
Relations with his employer deteriorate day by day. When Osama plans to visit the surrounding area during his rest time, he is reprimanded. “She told me: ‘You’re not on vacation here, you have to be careful of the police, because if they see you they will send you back to Morocco.’ This continued all summer, in inhumane conditions.” According to him, the operator goes so far as to threaten him with preventing him from obtaining his residence permit. “During my rest time, I was not allowed to move. You are like a slave, you work or you are at home, otherwise you return to Morocco.”
Oussama is one of the twenty employees who marched in this farm, located in Espiens in Lot-et-Garonne, and who hope to obtain compensation during the hearing which opens this Wednesday, December 18, at the criminal court of ‘Agen. The defendant, a farmer who became a subcontractor for other farmers, is accused of having brought these workers through connections in Morocco. The families of these young men had paid considerable sums, sometimes up to 10,000 euros, to offer them a chance to work in France.
“In this case, we are mainly talking about human trafficking, the fact of exploiting an individual to gain an advantage, in this case work without remuneration, specifies his lawyer, Me Sylvia Goudenège-Chauvin. These are families who will use all their savings to bring their children here, telling themselves that at least they will have a better future. The reality is quite different.”
In the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region where agriculture plays an important role, these cases are more and more frequent. “We are becoming aware of the extent of the phenomenon, says the lawyer. I believe that talking about it allows people who are victims to realize that what they are experiencing is not normal.”
“We must not forget that these are people who are in a country they do not know, who do not necessarily speak the language,” she recalls.
They don’t know who to turn to and sometimes they are forbidden from leaving the accommodation, it is complicated to call for help.
Me Sylvia Goudenège-Chauvincivil party lawyer
If the hearing risks being postponed for additional information, Osama and his lawyer first hope for recognition of victim status. “He told me that he didn’t want the money, I understood his point of view, but he has the right to it. When I told him that at least it would reimburse his mother, he fell in love with me. arm. He is full of guilt, because it was his family who did everything to bring him here.
During the hearing, associations which took in foreign people after the events will also be present. This will open on Wednesday December 18, at 9 a.m.
