Conditions for grape-pickers in France's champagne business lie at the heart of a human trafficking trial that has opened in the eastern city of Reims.
Three people – a woman from Kyrgyzstan, a man from Georgia and a Frenchman – are accused of exploiting more than 50 seasonal workers, mainly from west Africa.
The workers – all undocumented migrants – were found during the 2023 September harvest living in cramped and unhygienic conditions in a building at Nesle-le-Repons, southwest of Reims in the heart of champagne country.
They had been recruited via a Whatsapp group message for the West African Soninke ethnic community living in Paris, which promised "well-paid work" in the Champagne region.
Aged between 16 and 65 at the time, the 48 men and nine women came from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal. Many are attending Thursday's trial.
