Finland jails businessman for trafficking Thai berry workers
The court said recruiters misled 78 Thai pickers about pay and costs, leaving them in debt and under exploitative conditions.
- On Monday, The Lapland District Court sentenced former Polarica Marjahankinta CEO Jukka Kristo to two years and six months in prison for human trafficking 78 Thai berry pickers during the 2022 season.
- Prosecutors argued recruiters lured workers with misleading income estimates and hidden expenses, creating situations where laborers had "no other genuine alternative than to continue picking berries to pay off the debt and other expenses under the conditions imposed by the defendants."
- The court ordered Kristo, associate Kalyakorn Phongphit, and the company to pay roughly €500,000 in compensation and approximately €400,000 for legal costs, finding lodging was "so cramped" that fees were unreasonable.
- In addition to prison, the court banned Kristo from business activities for five years and ordered him to forfeit his military rank; Phongphit received a nine-month sentence.
- Both defendants and prosecutors may appeal the verdict, which arrives amid a Finnish crackdown on the berry industry after authorities uncovered a "cartel" that collaborated unlawfully between 2013 and 2023 to depress wages.
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The Straits TimesFinland jails businessman for trafficking Thai berry workers
HELSINKI, Finland: A Finnish court on Monday (Jun 8) handed a two-and-a-half-year jail term to a local businessman for human trafficking Thai workers to pick berries in the Nordic country.Finnish authorities have cracked down in recent years after cases of exploitation of seasonal migrant workers in the natio
The Lapland District Court has handed down its verdict in Finland's largest human trafficking trial. The former CEO of the carrier company Polarica has been sentenced to prison for human trafficking, Yle reports.
According to the District Court, the conditions of the pickers were not degrading, despite the shortcomings.
Former berry company chief convicted in human trafficking case
The Lapland District Court has sentenced the former head of a berry procurement company to prison after finding that dozens of Thai berry pickers recruited to work in Finland were victims of human trafficking. The ruling, delivered on Monday, concludes one of the largest human trafficking cases ever heard in Finland. The court sentenced Jukka Kristo, former chief executive of Polarica Marjahankinta, to two years and six months in prison for huma…
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