In September last year, around 40 berry pickers sought protection from the municipality. They did not dare to go back to their employer’s accommodation and were helped by the municipality with safe accommodation.
The month before, several berry pickers had been stopped by the police because the car they were traveling in had a driving ban. When the police asked them to identify themselves, they told them that the manager had collected their passports.
Were in debt when they started
The police became suspicious when the berry pickers told them about the passports and carried out a number of internal alien checks.
“This was a thought-out method to be able to carry out the check in accordance with the Aliens Act while at the same time giving us an opportunity to talk to them without the suspect or other supervisors knowing about this,” the police write in a memo.
The investigation later showed how the berry pickers lived in difficult conditions, were in debt when they started and also received too little food. A large number of authorities participated in the effort and several serious shortcomings emerged.
Today, the verdict was handed down against the couple who ran and owned the carrier company. They are both sentenced to two and a half years in prison for gross human exploitation.
– This treatment with long working hours and inadequate food has been a violation of privacy and is about gross human exploitation, says judge Henrik Aspegren.
The couple must pay 80,000 kroner in damages to the berry pickers, for the violations they have been exposed to, as well as between 106,000 to 123,000 kroner for non-payment of wages.
The carrier companies were also banned from trading for seven years.
Forced to sleep in the forest and pay for gas
The berry pickers stated that they worked seven days a week, lived on mattresses and in home-made bunk beds. On some occasions, they were also forced to sleep outdoors in the forest – to save on petrol.
– If we go far, there won’t be enough petrol. We have to stay in the forest and sleep there, because we can save both petrol, time and money, says one of the berry pickers in questioning.
They had to pay for the petrol themselves and when they started working they were already in debt. The trip and overheads were seen as a loan of just over SEK 24,000. The berry pickers paid for accommodation and car repairs. In one residence there was no ventilation, in another there were electrical wires hanging in the showers, at the same time several of the cars were covered with driving bans.
– They have misled the berry pickers, who were in a difficult situation. I believe it is a matter of human trafficking, said senior prosecutor Petra Götell in connection with the prosecution.