A new amendment to Finland's immigrant labour, which was originally passed into law last October, seeks to prevent the exploitation of foreign workers by making suspected cases easier to detect and to report to authorities.
Under the previous legislation, if an immigrant worker's employment ended even as a result of exploitation, their grounds for residence in Finland also ended. This acted as a deterrent for people to report suspected cases.
However, under the new amendment, a victim of exploitation may still obtain a residence permit for a different employer.
This is a "significant change", according to Olli Sorainen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.
"For the first time, the existence of the problem has been identified and tools have been provided to combat it," Sorainen said.
Authorities must "build trust" with victims
The ministry commissioned a study, carried out by the Migration Institute of Finland's Seinäjoki unit, into the feasibility and effectiveness of the new measures.
The study was completed in January and found that successful implementation of the law reform will require close cooperation between different parties as well as establishing stronger connections with potential victims.
Previously Finnish authorities working in the area have concentrated on supervising work and residence permit matters, but now need to focus more on victims' legal protection, according to Toni Ahvenainen, a researcher at the Migration Institute who conducted the study.
"The authorities need to play a stronger role in defending the victim, with a focus on cooperation and building trust," Ahvenainen said.
While the ministry's Sorainen agreed with this assessment, he pointed out that there are many challenges in building that trust, not least of which is that many of exploitation often come from countries where they have learned not to trust the authorities since childhood.
"If something comes up, the police will be the last people they turn to," Sorainen said.
However, the law reform seeks to make the detection and disclosure of exploitation as easy as possible, which includes victims or whistleblowers being assisted by intermediate organisations, and being given the option to report anonymously if required.
"It is important for someone to tell the victim that this is probably an abuse case that should be taken forward. Building trust is difficult," Ahvenainen said.
Sorainen added that he hopes information about the law change will be spread as widely as possible, as the ministry's press releases tend not to reach potential victims of exploitation. Networks are crucial for this, he said.
"Cooperation between different organisations is extremely important," he said, adding that in the past silence has allowed blackmailing and exploitation of workers to continue.
"Not all cases have come to light. The effectiveness of this change in the law will be apparent if more cases are revealed," Ahvenainen concludes.