LAPLAND, Finland — A court in Finland has sentenced a prominent local businessman to two and a half years in prison for orchestrating the trafficking of dozens of Thai workers brought to the Nordic country for berry picking. The Lapland District Court convicted Jukka Kristo, the former chief executive of the berry company Polarica, on 78 separate counts of human trafficking, according to reports from the Finnish public broadcaster Yle.

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His Thai business associate, Kalyakorn Phongphit, was found guilty of the same offenses but received a nine-month prison sentence. This reduced term was granted because she is already serving a three-year sentence from a previous conviction related to a trafficking case involving a different berry firm. In addition to the prison terms, the court ordered Kristo, Kalyakorn, and Polarica to pay a combined 500,000 euros, approximately 19 million baht, in compensation to the victims for their suffering and financial losses. The corporate entity, Polarica, was also levied a separate fine of 150,000 euros.

Beyond his incarceration, the court imposed severe professional and personal restrictions on the former executive. Kristo has been banned from conducting any business activities for a period of five years and was ordered to forfeit his military rank, marking a significant fall from his previous standing in the agricultural industry.

A court in Finland has sentenced a local businessman to two and a half years in prison for trafficking dozens of Thai workers to pick berries in the Nordic country.

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The conviction stems from the severe mistreatment of Thai workers during the 2022 harvest season, which saw a record 4,000 pickers arrive in Finland. Prosecutors detailed how the defendants subjected the workers to forced labor and degrading living conditions. The accommodations provided were substandard and frequently lacked basic shower facilities, while the meals provided consisted largely of boiled chicken legs, salmon heads, and raw liver.

To maintain control over the workforce, staff members systematically confiscated the pickers’ passports and return flight tickets immediately upon their arrival in Finland. Investigators noted that the workers were kept in a state of fear, believing they would face severe retribution if they complained about the exploitative conditions to local authorities or attempted to leave the premises.

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The widespread reports of the mistreatment of Thai nationals in the Finnish berry industry prompted the Thai government to halt the travel of berry pickers to the country, pending a comprehensive renegotiation of labor terms with Helsinki. Although prosecutors had originally demanded five-year prison sentences for both Kristo and Kalyakorn, both defendants maintained their innocence and denied any wrongdoing throughout the trial. The ruling issued by the Lapland District Court is not yet final, as the convictions and sentences remain subject to the appeals process.

-Thailand News (TN)