a new trial for human trafficking in the Bordeaux vineyards

Three people prosecuted by 25 of their former Moroccan wine employees appeared Tuesday before the Libourne criminal court (Gironde), to answer charges of “trafficking in human beings” in Bordeaux vineyard estates. The two main defendants, a couple of French employers aged 54 and 42, at the head of a company providing winemaking work acting as an intermediary between seasonal workers and châteaux, are being prosecuted in particular for “trafficking” and “submission to disgraceful working conditions. Their recruiter, a 46-year-old Moroccan, appears solely for “trafficking”.

The victims, men and a woman recruited in Morocco, had paid the defendants between 8,000 and 10,000 euros to come and work in the vineyard between January 2021 and January 2024. In exchange, these immigrant workers, aged between twenty and forty For many years, they had been promised a four-month employment contract paid at the minimum wage, accommodation and a residence permit. According to investigators, these promises were never really honored: contracts were not given, work weeks went up to 62 hours without financial compensation, and regular residence permits were never provided.

“Conditions contrary to human dignity”

The victims were also housed in “conditions contrary to human dignity”, according to the Labor Inspectorate. They sometimes crammed together 12 people at the same time, with no mattresses available for everyone, in two small apartments in the center of Libourne.

Also read
Burgundy: more than 300 bottles of grands crus stolen, damage estimated at 100,000 euros

Cases of exploitation of immigrant wine workers, with mechanisms similar to those of migrant smuggling networks, have recently increased in the Bordeaux vineyards, with the Libourne public prosecutor’s office in particular making it “one of its priorities”. Several people have been sentenced to prison in his jurisdiction or that of the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office in similar cases of human trafficking targeting immigrant workers, particularly Romanians and Moroccans.