Champagne on Trial: Human Trafficking Exposed in France’s Luxury Wine Industry

By Hugh Schofield, BBC News – Rewritten for summary

A high-profile human trafficking trial has exposed the dark underside of France’s prestigious champagne industry. Three individuals — a Kyrgyz woman, a Georgian man, and a French national — stand accused of exploiting over 50 undocumented migrant workers during the 2023 harvest in the Champagne region.

The victims, mostly from West African nations including Mali, Senegal, and Mauritania, were lured via a WhatsApp message promising “well-paid work.” Instead, they found themselves living in squalor in a dilapidated building with no clean water and minimal food. “I never thought the people who made champagne would put us up in a place which even animals would not accept,” said one worker, Kanouitié Djakariayou.

Another worker, Doumbia Mamadou, described the ordeal as “truly terrible,” highlighting that without legal papers, “you have no rights.”

Labour inspectors, alerted by a concerned resident, described conditions as a serious violation of health, safety, and dignity. Migrants were reportedly forced to work ten-hour days with minimal breaks, squatting in trucks to reach the vineyards, and receiving pay that bore “no relation to the work performed.”

Prosecutors say the accused showed “a total disregard for human dignity.” The lead suspect, Svetlana G., ran a recruitment agency supplying labour to the wine industry, and now faces multiple charges including human trafficking, illegal employment, and housing vulnerable people in unfit conditions.

The trial has sparked a broader debate over accountability in the €6bn champagne sector, which depends heavily on some 120,000 seasonal workers annually. Union leader Jose Blanco stated, “It should not be possible to harvest the grapes of champagne using human misery.” Some are now calling for champagne producers to lose their label rights if caught using illegal labour, even through subcontractors.

The Comité Champagne, the industry’s main body, condemned the abuse and is participating in the trial as a civil plaintiff to protect the brand's integrity, stating such mistreatment is rare but “unacceptable.”