Berry crises resolved – Thai return to Northern Finland

Since 2005, Thai people have traveled to Finland on turist visas in summer to work as wild berry pickers.

Due to the unveiling of slave like working conditions and charges of human trafficking, Thai authorities have not allowed Thai workers to leave the country this summer.

Following yesterday’s discussion between the Finnish and Thai Ministers of Employment, Arto Satonen and Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, it appears that workers from Thailand will indeed be allowed to travel.

The concern that wild berries would remain unpicked this season and that some Finnish berry companies might go bankrupt seems to have been averted.

On Tuesday, July 30, the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment announced on X that Thai authorities have agreed to issue exit permits to the Thai berry pickers.

“We are awaiting the decision from the Thai authorities, which they promised to make urgently”, the post states.

Kiitos hyvästä kokouksesta ministeri Ratchakitprakarnille. Toivomme, että Thaimaa vahvistaa tiedot mahdollisimman pian. Poimijoiden tulee saada työstä kunnollista palkkaa ja nyt heidän asemansa on suojatumpi. Huolehdimme, että työoloja myös valvotaan. #marjanpoiminta #thaimaa https://t.co/VbeArK3NZj

— Arto Satonen (@artosatonen) July 30, 2024

Thai Minister Ratchakitprakarn agreed to issue the exit permits on the condition that the Finnish Ministry verifies the workers’ expected pay levels. The Finnish Ministry also assured that working conditions will be monitored.

Suspended visa applications

In March, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs suspended the processing of Schengen visa applications for berry pickers in Thailand.

The decision was based on suspicions of human trafficking within berry companies, Iltalehti reported on July 24.

Since then, the Finnish Immigration Service has granted over 900 residence permits to Thai berry pickers.

Thai authorities have expressed concerns about the working conditions and terms of employment for the pickers and therefore denied exit permits to the workers.

Nearly 90 percent of the so-called industrial berries collected from Finnish forests are picked by Thai berry pickers, Birgitta Partanen, Executive Director of the industry association Arktiset Aromit, told Iltalehti.

Ongoing criminal cases

Currently, there are three ongoing criminal cases in Finland where leading figures or owners of the major berry companies Polarica, Kiantama, and Arctic International, are suspected or accused of human trafficking, Helsingin Sanomat reports.

A Thai broker who enticed pickers to come to Finland is among the accused. In addition a former government counsellor from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is charged with corruption.

All of the accused have denied any wrongdoing.

Human trafficking

Thai berry pickers have been coming to Finland since 2005, and protests over poor conditions in Finland started in 2009. Berry pickers also protested in Sweden in 2010.

In 2013, fifty Thai berry pickers accused the company Ber-Ex of deception, but the human trafficking charge was not pursued. The company was later sold and is now owned by Arctic International Oy.

In 2016, a criminal investigation was launched into the company Marja-Matti, leading to the company’s owner being sentenced to one year and ten months in prison in 2022 for 26 counts of human trafficking.

The investigation into Polarica and Kiantama represents a major human trafficking case. The National Bureau of Investigation has identified over 2,000 potential victims, most of whom are in Thailand.

Thai berry pickers told of 14-18 hour long working days. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

Inhumane conditions

The Thai workers have borne all the entrepreneurial risks, such as poor yields or decreases in per-kilo prices, while the berry companies and Thai brokers have imposed arbitrarily high fees and commissions on them.

Workers interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat described working 14-hour days for a couple of months, with some days extending to 18 hours.

By the end of the season, many ended up in debt to the berry companies.

The workers told that they had to live in unacceptable conditions and, at their worst, were so hungry that even roadkill was considered food.

Failed monitoring

The Thai berry pickers have come to Finland on tourist visas and picked berries under the rights granted by public access. They have not paid taxes.

As a result, the occupational safety authorities have not had the jurisdiction to oversee the conditions of berry pickers.

Attempts to regulate the beery pickers position were made in 2014 by the so-called intention agreement, which stipulated that pickers should be ensured a minimum wage of 30 euros per day. The parties involved were the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, and the companies bringing berry pickers to Finland.

However, the agreement was not legally binding.

Another attempt was made in 2021, when the so-called Berry Law came into effect. It allowed the occupational safety authorities to monitor the conditions of berry pickers, but only very narrowly, and did not include monitoring of their earnings. Due to lack of resources, the limited oversight permitted by the law has been minimal.

This situation was changed by the Foreign Ministry in March when they informed in a press release that the reception of wild-berry pickers’ visa applications in Thailand are suspended. Instead work residence permits would be needed, thus requiring the berry companies to hire the berry pickers.