nor also recently installed the world's northern most mobile towers inside the arctic circle. it coverage everywhere. you're watching dw news from berlin. i'll be back in the top of the hour with more, from the, the ice cold view, pasadena new, an expedition ventures on to places that no one has the climate research in the ice, the tasks much touch on the heart of sean pine. you and you can see there is money here. major champagne brands are enjoying record sales,

but the people at the other end of the value chain face a very different feed problem. i thought i worked for 4 days to the left without paying exploitation. human trafficking slaves like labor reports because when i think how it used to be where we are today, all because of profits, it makes me say something to jump on. your affluence is just opposed with abject poverty, almost. so when you see this, you must stop, it will still be the, the town of, at the ne, in northeastern france, the center of the world's name as champagne industry says display as an additional

sonya levin shall probably know it is. most of the big brands are here, or rather schmid. stephanie van gas and shaka niece belonged to an international collective of journalists there in champagne year for the harvest season to investigate what's behind the industry's glamorous facade. so the fancy buildings, well, it's clearly affluent. many of the major champagne brands are batch by large corporations, luxury conglomerates and investors. business is booming in 2020, to the industry, so record turnover of more than 6000000000 euros to maintain these profits. someone 100000 seasonal workers are needed for the grape harvest. every year they go to look at the crates and they've with us the level where they put the groups well are missing. yes. are supported by journalism funds, europe. the reporters are researching

a story they hope to publish in german and french media, investigating whether there's illegal exploitation and human trafficking in the champagne industry. cities, how they work. they do is very strenuous, allegedly, some people aren't adequately paid. the goals, what back will like to multi point up. there have been cases of people, house and terrible conditions. of course this isn't the norm, but it does happen. but as really to me yet, we want to see exactly what's going on and what sort of tasking excuse fussing victim. you have a quick look. we're drawing lots of people who come here from eastern europe, africa, and asia. don't know their rights. she couldn't spell it and sometimes if they don't dare defend themselves against abuses, say that because i'm or if you g, i knew i, i've seen your situation as the do not have a civil income and that's why they are ready to do any kind of job then of the photographer, a journalist, the i would like to tell is

a story. the reporters have no idea that this harvest season will mark a milestone with hundreds of new cases of exploitation and human traffic and coming to light. to begin, they want to find out more about the actual grape harvest on the bay, not families, champagne estate. the work day begins before dawn. don't go on with me. she has been married a wine maker 30 years ago. she helped out in the kitchen during harvest. season these days it's a thriving family business and she's in charge of the great picking teams to seek to you. the harvest is hard work. the press has to be fed. grapes have to be picked off please. no one is here to sit around to see. so they want to harvest, harvest,

harvest factor. yes. the polish workers are already waiting outside. they're directly employed by the family and live here on the grounds. in this, there are 9 of them here, so there are 14 others in another building with awesome. everyone prepares their lunch here to take to the vineyards. this year the harvest starts in early september, when temperatures can still reach over 40 degrees celsius. as the sun rises, the work begins. each of the harvest workers will take several 100 kilos of grades today. well, me show, make sure there aren't too many leaves in the crates. the reporters ask the workers how they cope with the heat. we finished work earlier because the summer was the burning hours king with the volume for less hours of work it's it hurts but the some of us

take medicine or have a different way for a buck. bang. darya is a student. this is her 2nd hard. the season with a big now family. others have been doing it for more than 10 years and take time off from their actual jobs to come. that much money in $10.00 days it's for fall into is too much like it's. yeah. you can count on that much money in 10 days. on a good slope. darya can earn more than 150 euros a day. the prospect of a decent wage like this is attractive. many wine growers now outsource the harvesting to service providers that recruit and manage games of for workers. me sure, they know prefers to do it all herself, even though it's sometimes hard to communicate with the workers at home because i just, the service providers are useful. i just, for instance,

i don't speak any polish and the workers don't speak french will speak english, but otherwise we communicate with gestures. so i prefer to have my own teams much better. if you work with a service provider, you need to ask how the people are being accommodated to school and where come on and under what conditions. the winemaker has seen outsourcing roll over the years as major brands want to maximize profits. but she's still stays true to her way. i'm happy. they're beautiful grapes. my son can work well with ease college. nearby, her son, shaw is awaiting the harvest. he studied city culture before taking over the state . this is his 3rd harvest season. was my competitor, this is where i take over as soon as the grapes arrive, we start the process and then we make one and it takes 4 tons for one load. the

young winemaker has plans to improve the vineyard, as according to the law or regulating champagne production, the grapes have to be hand picked to avoid any damage. we want to plant ivy and fruit treats with you can't only think in terms of for profit loss with a heat right now when the harvest workers want to take a break, there is no shaking push, so it's a project that's close to my heart. so that's why we have one on one, so it's not pointing content but not everyone has such a whole. some approach domain producers have financial goals to meet and around 2 thirds of the harvest go to the big brands. industry leader l v in age produces more than $70000000.00 bottles a year. so they know as goals are more modest, he's happy with the 70000 bottles there hoping to produce that. you know, we went out into the cold to prune the vice scott on the tractor to attend to them . it took time and energy,

and in the end we got something great. so we won't be drinking this wind for another 4 or 5 years. so you need to bear that in mind to the 1st bay. no champagne overseen from start to finish by shows will be ready later in 2024. but there's already a reason to celebrate. oh no, we've started the last press. so now we can take a deep breath with a toast to end the day. one of the tables, you know, there's only calling you on a to and other day done 14000 kilos picked 1.3, hector was processed, everything went well. well, so, so deficit. so here's, do you know, most of them here's to you all think many one, growers and brand stick to the rules, but there are also some black sheep in the industry back in may. we've heard that people arrive at the station looking for work and the harvest by

investment. they sleep in the park outside and wait for sub contractors to come along and offer them weren't expected that all these portal completed by hardly anyone here wants to speak out against a sub contractors. finally, someone agrees to talk to us secure. what are you waiting for? we just bought the 12 by i'm looking for work a deal. are you expecting sub contractors? yes. deals that have you been offered to work on your legs on property? yes, but for 50 or 60 years a day or so. i won't do that. it's not enough, but the use of lives in lee is he's here because he needs the money. we always have you ever had problems before then? yes, 2 or 3 times people came along. i went with one of them, works for 4 days, and then he left without paying cards and thought so it goes. that's how it works

here. use it is holding out for a decent offer until then. he'll sleep here in the park. back in the vineyards. a team from the powerful french trade union, c g t has come to show solidarity with the workers c g t general secretary, subbing delaney is a trained nurse. now she's fighting for the rights of seasonal workers take on to the press. but there's a settlement. there's a code of silence. we don't know how many people are effective for yeah, for, for maybe it's only a few cases. but even one case is one to many parts without having to sit on the top of the, the front of our job is to make sure that nobody is employed here under slavery light conditions while you're from this government during the harvest season. the c

g t team is in the vineyards every day, speaking with a great pickers. an opponent on it, we're here to talk to the harvest workers and been sick of this and the trouble is they won't talk. they won't say anything of them. they're afraid of losing their jobs. no one talks in the vineyards for her. there's also a language barrier. there we don't mean where do you sleep in terms of thunder, a tar bullen to the english and to the last longer silver and gold? was it the language barrier is a big problem. if it still we give them the leaflets so they can read them, pack them perhaps with the help of some of the french who can explain to them why we're here pulling it off. if they do have problems up, they only come to us after the grape harvest to them when they need more information. the this group of bulgarians also

works for a service provider. the fields belong to a large producer, shift the boss, and they put in a problem. if there are problems and here's our phone number. yeah, give us a call. i will answer all your questions. the problem was the sound of just call. here's our number, mobile answer, your question. where do you sleep? far, body body harris. you're going back to paris in the evening here. yes . 100 kilometers on the legally, the workers have to have an 11 hour break between shifts. the union is suspect, this rule isn't being observed, but the c g t is not an official investigating authority to complete the complicated just yet. the boss says he's going to drive 100 kilometers to spend the night somewhere and come back the next day. you will be entered on the amount we don't know if it's a 100 kilometers or more exactly solely the workers can say. so again,

we can only find out if they're being cheated, if they come to us. so we can't just guess what's happening up on, you know, on a coupon. but it's up to the laborers themselves to report problems. only labor inspectors and police can take action against exploitation in the vineyards. but both declined our interview requests. the reporters turn to the corporation of champagne, one growers which comprises several 1000 medium sized wine growers. joseph gunnar, thanks for seeing us. of course, please don't panic the winemaker himself and has been active in the association for years. why we need to, we don't play out,

we bring the wine growers together and host events where various issues are flagged, such as working conditions, social issues, and other official matters or a new spots. these gifts. cool. what can you tell us about service providers? i don't know if, as well as there are lots of small businesses and shop on your with assume that fund, it's sometimes hard for them to find workers. you don't get it and it's becoming increasingly difficult to recruits people locally. that's why we've seen an increase in outsourcing and recent years. go to how life's, val up with us, you know, for the repair to because we provide information on this on it and communicate stroke if adult for social studies go about. so when you work with a service provider, you have to follow certain rules and make sure you check everything on the sites. is an order of the restaurant to speak. the concord? i think 3, april 2 is the awareness of the conditions people work in the show. it seems the same problems arise year after year on any they're supposed to. i wouldn't say every year. well no. the grape harvest is

a lucrative business. it's what's your model, and unfortunately that attracts sometimes dishonest. people are fortunately, but it was more a live. okay. after we finish filming the wine makers present several proposals. there is to be more accommodation for workers. the work should be better organized and above all stricter rules should apply to the service providers. whether this will actually come to be remains to be seen shows a blown go, has worked in the champagne industry for 36 years. today. he's a trade unionist and tackles the exploitation of workers by sub contractors. he starts work early when one parties, most of them aren't even earning a 100 zeros a day. they get between 40 and 50 years. that's below the going rate. is always the over the years and entire system has evolved here with the support of the

industry. and the authorities simply look the other way. companies. no one will be happy that we're digging around. these reports to the book we're going to, you know, start off to look for. well, then see that van over there, it's just arrive when a good opportunity, then we'll feel the people are watching subsidy. they know we're here in the course of his campaign against exploitation shows a has met the minister of labor and been in touch with the local politicians about visiting the vineyards. this work makes them a target. tea and the reporters are clearly under observation. it's a french license plates, a local one. what is the sky one? the only watching us? yes, the he's on the phone. keep an eye on all the time. shows

a is undeterred. he knows that some of the sub contractors come to this car park to recruit workers. the way you can see the buses arriving here from various places and also from parents that definitely and dropping people off looking for work in the vineyards. the so the no one dropped off here stays with the wind growers. otherwise they'd be taken directly to the vineyards and don't coast that. okay, that's a long commute. natalia post. absolutely. some of the been traveling for 2 hours now they're waiting to see where they will be sent. josie polanko is convinced that some of the subcontractors are part of the organized criminal networks. okay, the best sense, so there are people orchestrating it all the video. oh yeah, and it's a team leader so to speak and the supervisor is full of this show. we go over

and talk to them. you know, for me i'd rather not easy for them. it's all well organized and secret is told me. so i'm worried about my safety a recent case showed that criminal activity does indeed exist after seasonal workers reported a sub contractor network. the service provider was convicted of human trafficking in 2022 of the known stuff assessing in the for to this is one of the photos published in the local press it over here. you can see workers sleeping on mattress on the floor. excellent. so they might know most of them were asylum seekers and putting them on to that in the journal. this is shot, a nice knows how powerless people can feel. in such situations. he fled from

afghanistan, defense himself after being in touch with one of the seasonal workers from the court case for a while. you shocked me some for an interview in paris. see for to an advisor is also from afghanistan. this is the 1st time since the ruling that he's speaking publicly about, the criminal network that exploited him. in juggle the, we were told that we'd have a room for 2 people who know that everything was clean and tidy and that there would be food not meet them. when we got there, everything was different. but there was only one big room or add ons. no beds and no mattress, it's i know for sure we slept on the floor. you've got to send them and you didn't sign any contracts that when we applied for the job they didn't give us a contract number. i work for 5 days without a contract and then i told them if you don't give me a contract,

i won't work here anymore. that's why i called the police it, i mean the police on the mission. okay. tell me more about the working conditions kind of feel that the work was very hard. we worked until just before midnight. now, in the morning we got up around 5 or 6. like there were 36 people and one rooms and there was only one toilet fast enough, but within that, the user these days, if i to live active uh, that has a job with a proper contract in paris. his statements resulted in the biggest case of human trafficking and champagne year to date. many of the gun workers were represented by a lawyer based in the city of loans. bullshit, marshall used to take part in the great harvest as a student himself, a lot has changed since then. not known as eustace. nobody's reached,

the court is right in the middle of the region. they only now and now it's also dealing with this industries in activity they couldn't measure. it's a major economic factor here, which you know, that he's going to be that cool, but we weren't used to dealing with it in a criminal court, he know casa, and then we heard a case that turned out to be huge. this morning said to natalie, the lawyer agrees to talk about it. he says that even now more than a year after the ruling, many questions remain on answered dates on politics. it's, you know, it was an extraordinary trial and more fully spend one point in your but in terms of the outcome, it was extremely frustrating. the next 10 1st ice, you just a moment was able, the verdict was frustrating. visual 9 gong on the launch on pan. uh, we saw a very large champagne brand that outsourced to a sub contractor, which in turn notes sourced to another sub contractor. uh,

i knew what the price was. he did potential on sale, he's the court looked at the 2nd and 3rd levels to create the book. she buckled, but at the top of the pyramid. oh, look you up with someone who was supposed to supervise the grape harvest on behalf of the big champagne brand, we live on the ocean. this person slipped through the naturally made this last looks like a wooden. do you get the impression that an industry and some important players were being protected like the measure? next, whether there's some vanya odds in regions is relies, to a large extent on wine growing like that. no. the professor, i appreciate, don't think of the fuzzy know you can't help thinking the case targeted the people doing the enforcing usually the whole not those giving the orders me up and walden, y'all don't. this of course, does not apply to the whole industry, but evidence against them. sub contractors is piling up back in the vineyard. this

young man who works for a sub contractor of a major champagne producer wants to remain anonymous for his statement. sounds familiar. i received no contact from all nothings and what, what about the post diesel, the one in the link for the loan? cuz sometimes who gets along sometimes with the list some guy in good faith like 400 zeros for working 10 days. you live in this for the same guy you're working for or for another. the same day when i got all the reporters here, similar accounts over the following days. the image of sean han yet has been tarnished, says trade unionist visuals. a blanco. it's high time to stop exploitative sub contractors. he says in the interest of big brands as rival products, such as a tally and pros. seco are becoming more popular,

just possibly legal for you. we hope that the employers, especially the main brands, will sit down together and put it into this to these people. all right? the software for the, for the sake of the image and the future of champagne. what i don't know who the point we're fighting for our jobs, our industry for our return, your call, i will call you jose. a blown go. was born and jump on you and worked in the industry for decades. his own son works in the vineyards during the harvest. he maintains there's been systematic exploitation for a long time. inadequate accommodation for workers is one issue, the another camp, semi legal. let it on. yeah. last year they put labels on the dungeon wins just now this year. there are stickers for separated trash cancer subsidies, which means they've been provided by the municipality of the pac on a to morning. that means every one of the may are the units, suppose association and the municipality. this can still in fact tensor especially

forbidden in this part of sham tanya. yet illegal comes to be found all along the roadside up in the forest. the conditions are especially shocking and informative towards your se, together with your colleagues, noel sounds the just a wants to see for himself. know where you are. that looks like a bench and table problems, resolutely unconditioned steps to. so it's a proper account. there was a cam here, but now everyone's gone. we'll schedule it to complete it on you to camp they're looking for is believe to be further north. let me once before i think we have to go past the vineyard. all right, let's go who. what did they find? what they're looking for at the edge of the forest makes shift tens. no toilet, no water connection. multiple plugs in wet grass shows

a is outraged. a problem with seems waiting or even after a long day in the vineyard is in the rain. imagine coming back in the evening to conditions like this, with this catastrophic motion. is there a wild boars? and these, for the most part, i can just see them dropping by in the evening. this will get or for. it also looks like there are children living here. suddenly a woman appears with her daughter. they don't want to be filmed way. ok, let's okay, we want from what's the bosses name? i don't know. we've only been here for 2 or 3 days. big is everything. okay. my husband is going to work and i'm here with my daughter. do you work in the vineyards too? yes. while the men wait, stephanie listens to the woman story, a to z. let them any. she's from romania. she came here with her husband and the rest of her family or somebody and they were

promised the proper accommodation with the toilet. but when they arrive on x, there was nothing here. you don't have to do to of the 2 days or 2. that's human trafficking. absolutely. it's human traffic. i'll call the labor department and that's how it works. and trump on you. that's how it works is we condemn it, and i'll put this isn't about the union. this is about these people, not cities or wherever they are from their human beings. we can't allow this to happen though. it has to stop to be something after we finish filming the reporter sees footage of people in catastrophic accommodation given in edible food. it's clear that these are no isolated cases. by the end of the season, hundreds of new victims of modern slavery have been discovered with ongoing investigations into unpaid wages, totaling millions and 2 new cases of human trafficking. a sorry indictment of one

of the richest regions in the world. the business started, we started to understand clearly and what you need to do for us, ukraine was assembled. are we moving towards europe or not? 2015 for democracy, protests and ukraine. the country response to your price to ship the west has recognized the danger and the chances of being foretold all the signs, but that we really understand that so easily for you. uh,

we will lose our concerts. you wrote my done stuff february 17th on d, w. the these kinds of ships once gabby goulds and merchandise that are on the word, the button after that time is up, 80 percent of them end up as hazardous waste sites on. so the she ensures like go down in buckets done alone in india, and she'll go mean bundle dish and go into meeting costs and endangering workers. today we explore by mother she has, she told me she breaking you out to assess the human and environmental tools of the she breaking industry.