Overview

• Three individuals and two companies face charges at the Châlons-en-Champagne court for human trafficking, employing foreign nationals without authorization and subjecting 50 to 60 seasonal workers to undignified conditions
• Prosecutors say the Nesle-le-Repons housing had worn and filthy sanitation, exposed electrical wiring, outdoor kitchens and bedding strewn on the floor
• Migrant workers from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal were recruited in Paris with promises of €80 per day but never paid and threatened with knives when they sought breaks
• The Champagne Committee, representing thousands of growers and hundreds of cooperatives and houses, is acting as a civil party for the first time in a case over worker living conditions
• The trial follows heightened scrutiny after four harvesters died of suspected heatstroke in 2023 and underscores the sector’s reliance on about 120,000 seasonal workers across 34,000 hectares each year