Berry pickers from Thailand refuse to leave Finland

25 berry pickers from Thailand refused to board their flight back home this weekend, Finnish Yle reported.

A group of berry pickers in Central Finland issued in a press release on Saturday 14 September that they would not leave Finland. According to their employer the berry company Ber-Ex Oy the group should have forwarded their flight tickets due to visa issues. Despite the change of the date, they would not leave Finland.

In the release, the berry pickers claim that Ber-Ex is trying to put pressure on them as well as denying them their legal rights and compensations. According to Yle the group also said that actions by the company have violated their human dignity.

According to Ber-Ex CEO Kari Jansa the company was obliged to move forward the berry pickers’ return flights, as they were in infringement of visa legislation. The CEO said the Thai workers were in Finland on berry picking visas, and as they now refused to pick berries, his company was obliged to help get them back home.

Read the full article here.

7 Comments on “Berry pickers from Thailand refuse to leave Finland”

  1. Following the Finnish news it appears the Finnish employer is at fault. Finnish labour unions are stepping in and am sure the situation will be solved. If not, the poor Thai will run out of Finland as the first snow is expected this week in the north!

  2. I am so fed-up with this annual “tragedy”
    I consider that the biggest problem lies in regulations how to issue visas to these berry pickers that they are promised lots of money and not told the real circumstances : Little berries =little money and it is the pickers loss!
    The only way is that the Swedish company buying the berries should deposit the payment money at banks and regulated so that the money can only be used for paying the berry pickers. Yes that will increase the price on market for sure! But then we would not have this problem every autumn. Why cant we use our own people without jobs in Sweden, Finland to do this instead of doing nothing. Many berries are picked during summer months. Good opportunities for student to earn extra! WE want to have our berries picked in honest way and no middlemen taking the profits in Thailand or elsewhere ! Why has this become the responsibility of the Thai government as it should be split with the countries that issued visas in first place !

  3. Finland är för alla. Om de bärplockare vägrar att lämna, är det deras val. Låt oss respektera andra kulturer!

  4. Finns need to learn the Thai way, which is to avoid the law by not responding.
    The company should do nothing, no pay, no food, no housing. As the weather becomes colder,the Thai’s will want to leave.

  5. Thai workers are some of the laziest tin the world. It doesn’t surprise me they couldn’t earn enough.
    Considering how foreigners are treated by the thai government on visa issues I start charging them overstay fees if I were a immigration officerinvolved in this.

  6. Again a sad story about berry pickers in Finland. The problem is here , provided the pickers is right, that if they stay without a valid visa , they can be refused to enter Finland again.

  7. Again and again is Finland and Sweden showing that they treat foreigners as slave labor !
    How can the Unions allow that companies hire foreigners under these cercomstances ?
    I thought the slavery was over !!

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