20/06/2025

FRIDAY | JUNE 20, 2025

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Trio charged with human trafficking

LILLE: Three French employers in the champagne sector went on trial yesterday, accused of human trafficking, exploiting and housing seasonal workers in appalling conditions during grape picking in eastern France in 2023. Around 50 migrant harvesters were living in accommodation that harmed their “security, health and dignity”, according to investigators. The Chalons-en-Champagne criminal court in eastern France will judge the defendants for their suspected mistreatment of the workers from Mali, Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Senegal. o Defendants have total contempt and disrespect for human dignity: Lawyer

Hurricane expected to hit Mexico PUERTO ESCONDIDO: Hurricane Erick has strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” Category Four storm as it neared Mexico’s Pacific coast yesterday, the US National Hurricane Centre said. Erick’s maximum sustained winds have increased to nearly 230kmh and the storm’s centre was expected to make landfall in the states of Oaxaca or Guerrero on Mexico’s west coast by yesterday morning, it said. The hurricane was expected to stengthen before making landfall, bringing with it storm surges, coastal flooding and destructive waves. Forecasters warned of intense rainfall across the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, bringing “life-threatening flooding and mudslides”. Mexican authorities said they are also expecting heavy rain in Chiapas state. President Claudia Sheinbaum urged people to avoid going out and advised those living in low-lying areas or near rivers to move to shelters. In Acapulco, a major port and resort city famous for its nightlife, police with bullhorns walked along the beach and drove around town warning residents and holidaymakers of the storm’s arrival. Some shops boarded up their windows and operators of tourist boats brought their vessels ashore. About 400km south of Acapulco, the city of Puerto Escondido and its 30,000 inhabitants braced for the hurricane’s effects. Restaurants were closed despite tourists being unwilling to give up their vacations, an AFP journalist noted from the scene. “They say it is going to hit this side of the coast, so we are taking precautions to avoid having any regrets later,“ said 55-year-old fisherman Adalberto Ruiz, sheltering his boat. National coordinator of civil protection Laura Velazquez said the government was using patrols and social media to warn people. Some 2,000 temporary shelters have been set up in Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca, and hundreds of troops and electricity workers have been deployed to help with cleanup efforts. Local authorities have suspended classes and closed ports along the coast, including the port of Acapulco, to shipping. Mexico sees major storms every year, usually between May and November, on its Pacific and Atlantic coasts. In October 2023, Acapulco was pummeled by Hurricane Otis, a powerful Category Five storm that killed at least 50 people. Hurricane John, a Category Three storm that hit Acapulco in September last year, caused about 15 deaths. – AFP French law defines human trafficking as “recruiting, transporting, transferring, housing or receiving a person to exploit them” by means of coerced employment, abusing a position of authority, abusing a vulnerable situation or in exchange of payment or benefits. – AFP Charles Goemaere in a statement in March. Every year, around 120,000 seasonal workers are brought to the region to handpick grapes grown across 34,000ha and used to make its iconic bubbly. The famed winemakers’ reputation took a hit in 2023 when four grape harvesters in the region died, believed to have suffered sunstroke after working in scorching heat. “The public should be made aware of the extent of human trafficking in the agricultural sector and producers should know that they may face legal procedures,” said Committee Against Modern Slavery vice-president David Desgranges.

said at a press conference on Monday. In September 2023, Marne regional authorities ordered the closure of the accommodation, citing “unsanitary” and “undignified” living conditions. According to a report conducted by the labour inspectorate, the accommodation was in a state of “dilapidation”, and the toilets and shared living spaces were “disgusting” due to lack of cleaning, said authorities. The defendants “have a total contempt” and disrespect for “human dignity”, said the victims’ lawyer Maxime Cessieux. The Champagne Committee, which represents 16,200 winemakers, 130 cooperatives and 370 champagne houses, will participate as a civil party in the trial, a first for legal proceedings concerning the living conditions of seasonal workers. The committee is “firmly opposed to these unacceptable practices”, said its director

A woman, who is viticultural servicing company Anavim director, was tried on charges of human trafficking, submitting vulnerable or dependent persons to undignified housing conditions and employment of foreign nationals without authorisation. Anavim, the company that provided the housing, and a viticultural cooperative in the Marne were tried as moral parties by the court. Two men will also be judged on suspicion of employing the seasonal workers. After a neighbour alerted the French police, investigators inspected the living conditions of the harvesters, said prosecutor Annick Browne. The housing in the village of Nesle-le-Repons contained “worn and dirty sanitation facilities”, outdoor kitchen and living areas that were unprotected from the weather, and bedding strewn on the floor. The accommodation also failed to respect electrical “security measures”, the prosecutor

PEACEFUL MARCH ... Individuals joining the Interfaith Prayer Walk for Family Unity through downtown Los Angeles and placing flowers on the steps of the Federal Building on Wednesday. – AFPPIC

US tightens social media vetting for foreign students WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday ordered the resumption of student visa appointments but will significantly tighten its social media vetting in a bid to identify applicants who may be hostile towards the United States, according to an internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters. directed officers to look for “applicants who demonstrate a history of political activism, especially when it is associated with violence or with the views and activities described above, you must consider the likelihood they would continue such activity in the United States”. The cable also authorised the consular officers to ask applicants to make all social media accounts public. to look for potentially derogatory information about the applicant. “For example, you might discover on social media that an applicant endorsed Hamas or its activities.“ Rubio has said he has revoked the visas of hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, including students, because they got involved in activities that went against US foreign policy priorities.

US consular officers are required to conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of student and exchange visitor applicants to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles“, said the cable, which was dated June 18 and sent on Wednesday. On May 27, the Trump administration ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants, saying the State Department was set to expand social media vetting of foreign students. The cable, which was sent by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to US diplomatic missions,

“Remind the applicant that limited access to online presence could be construed as an effort to evade or hide certain activity,“ the cable said. The move follows the administration’s enhanced vetting measures last month for visa applicants looking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose, in what a separate State Department cable said would serve as a pilot programme for expanded screening. The new vetting process should include a review of the applicant’s entire online presence and not just social media activity, the cable said, urging officers to use any “appropriate search engines or other online resources”. During the vetting, the directive asks officers

Those activities included support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. A Tufts University student from Turkiye was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticising her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. She was released from custody after a federal judge granted her bail. Trump’s critics have said the administration’s actions are an attack on free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. – Reuters