فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
Three employers from the vineyard region of Bordeaux, in southwestern France, including a Moroccan, were sentenced on Tuesday to prison terms ranging from one to three years in a case of “human trafficking,” the prosecutor’s office announced.
The victims, Moroccan immigrant workers – men and a woman aged between their twenties and forties – had paid between 8,000 and 10,000 euros to the defendants, between January 2021 and January 2024, to come and work in the vineyard.
In return, they were promised a work contract paid at minimum wage, housing, and a residence permit, but these commitments were never fulfilled, according to investigators.
Work contracts were not issued, weeks could reach 62 hours without compensation, and no regular residence permit was provided.
The workers lived in conditions described as “contrary to human dignity” by the Labor Inspection, sometimes crammed twelve people into two small apartments, where mattresses were lacking.
The main defendant, presented as the unofficial boss of a vineyard work service company serving as a regular intermediary between seasonal workers and vineyards, was sentenced to three years in prison, in line with the prosecution’s requests, for “human trafficking,” “subjection to undignified working conditions,” and “undeclared work.”
His partner, prosecuted for the same offenses, was sentenced to two years in prison, one of which was suspended probation for two years. The firm part will be arranged as home detention under electronic surveillance.
These sentences are accompanied by a permanent ban on managing a company.
Finally, the 46-year-old Moroccan, presented as the couple’s recruiter, was sentenced to one year of home detention.
Cases of exploitation of immigrant vineyard workers, whose mechanisms are similar to those of migrant smuggling networks, have recently multiplied in the Bordeaux vineyard, with the prosecutor’s office making it “one of its priorities.”
