Police say that dozens of Thai nationals who came to Finland to pick berries for commercial operators were subjected to conditions comparable to forced labour.
It is suspected that the Thai berry pickers were recruited to work in Finland, but after deductions by employers they were without earnings, or even in debt to the company.
There are currently 20–30 individuals thought to be victims.
The incidents allegedly occurred in Päijät-Häme, Kainuu and North Karelia, according to police.
"According to our interpretation, they have been in a situation similar to forced labour," Hannu Kortelainen of the Helsinki Police's national Human Trafficking Unit told Yle.
Kortelainen said that there are several suspects, and the matter is still being investigated. Four people have been arrested and are being held. One of them is Janne Naapanki, the CEO of Arctic Group.
Some of the pickers have worked on berry farms in Päijät-Häme, but some also collected wild berries in Kainuu and North Karelia. The Arctic Group is based in Hollola but has operations in different locations around Finland.
Four in custody
On Sunday, 8 October, the District Court of North Savo ordered Naapanki and one other person to be held on suspicion of human trafficking. Two others were ordered to be held on the same charge by the Päijät-Häme District Court on Tuesday, 10 October.
These four are not the only suspects in the police investigation. According to Kortelainen, police have reason to believe that similar exploitation of workers took place in pervious years.
The case, which is now under investigation, came to the attention of police in interviews with arriving workers. Possible victims were referred to the human trafficking assistance system and some of them are still in Finland.
Katri Lyijynen, Deputy Director of the Joutseno reception centre, who leads the operations of the assistance system for victims of human trafficking, declined to comment directly on the Arctic Group case, saying only that workers in berry picking operations are one risk group.
In a typical case of criminal labour exploitation in Finland, a foreign worker comes to the country for seasonal work, is charged a fee to get the job, or the employer pays travel costs which are then deducted from the worker's pay.
"Working days can be long and work becomes all there is to life. Workers are isolated, and may not know how to ask anyone other than the employer about employment conditions," Lyijynen explained.
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