Moroccan Vineyard Worker Alleges Slavery in French Wine Industry

The misadventure of a Moroccan seasonal worker. Following the advice of her cousin who introduced her to a recruiter, she arrived in France in September 2022 to work in the vineyards with the promise of a monthly salary of 1,650 euros. Very quickly, her quest for a better life turned into a nightmare. She lived in a makeshift barracks, on the site of the cooperative winery in Lamothe-Montravel, a commune in Dordogne bordering Gironde, for a rent of 150 euros per month. Eight other men, also recruited as seasonal workers, find themselves in the same situation. They live in another barracks. All these seasonal workers share dilapidated showers and toilets.

The 33-year-old Moroccan woman’s work is not limited to the vineyards. "In addition to the work in the vineyards all day in the Libournais, the Saint-Emilion region and Monbazillac, I did the cleaning in the house," she tells 20minutes. After six months of work, she only receives one salary of 1,500 euros. Supported by a collective of individuals informed of the facts, she left the job in February. The association for the fight against serious forms of exploitation "Ruelle" provides her with support. The thirty-year-old then filed a complaint with eight other victims. What next? A procedure for the nine victims of this case has been opened for human trafficking, with the Bergerac prosecutor’s office.

The employer prosecuted for trafficking is certainly not remorseful. He "told the thirty-year-old that she should consider herself ’lucky’ because she had not paid a passage fee to come and work in France." A fairly common practice. "Unscrupulous agricultural service providers sell agricultural contracts to migrant workers of Moroccan origin, for 12,000 to 15,000 euros, and quickly thank them afterwards," explains Bénédicte Lavaud-Legendre, a lawyer, researcher at the CNRS and president of Ruelle.

It also emerges from recent legal proceedings that the people who work in the vineyards and are not paid are mostly Moroccans and Romanians. "Moroccans have a very strong migratory desire, they often sell land to leave and their family makes sacrifices, details Bénédicte Lavaud-Legendre. These are young men who leave without family ties, without children and who may have a job in their country of origin, but they prefer to leave it to aspire to a better life in Europe. The Romanians are often people in distress who have no home in Romania."