- Ukrainians pay to get a job in Sweden, but once here they are allowed to work under slave-like conditions without receiving the salary they were promised.
- Ekot has interviewed several people who have bought the trip to Sweden from the Ukrainian job agency Pelekh.
- According to Lawyer Torbjörn Olsson, many people end up in a position of dependence on the employer because they need a work permit in Sweden.
Ekot has previously revealed that the Ukrainian job agency Pelekh sells business trips to Sweden, but who once here transports their clients to the Swedish Migration Board and urges them to seek asylum. Several people interviewed by Ekot testify that they have since been exploited in the Swedish labor market. Aleksander says that he got a job at a construction company, but when the salary was to be paid, the employer started to get into trouble.
– We were alleged to work poorly and therefore we did not get paid, says Aleksander.
He tells me that he worked at the construction company for two months and had been promised a salary of SEK 35,000 but that in the end he only received SEK 7,000. There was a written contract and it said that he would work eight hours a day, but that was not true, says Aleksander.
– We did not work eight hours a day but much more, people were exploited as slaves, says Aleksander.
Aleksander traveled to Sweden with the Ukrainian job agency Pelekh and he says that many who traveled with Pelekh got jobs at this particular construction company.
Nasarji also traveled to Sweden with Pelekh and got a job at the same construction company.
– The conditions there were terrible and people only got SEK 300 a day because the boss deducted a lot of alleged offenses, says Nasarji.
Ekot has sought the management of the construction company that Aleksander and Nasarji worked for, but they did not want to be interviewed. Ekot has also repeatedly sought the management of the Ukrainian job agency Pelekh without receiving an interview.
Lawyer Torbjörn Olsson specializes in labor law and has many clients from countries in the former Soviet Union who seek help because they have not been paid. According to Torbjörn Olsson, many of his clients are dependent on the employer because they need an employment contract to be able to apply for a work permit in Sweden.
– They feel hostage to this situation that if we do not do as the employer says, we do not get these rights even on paper to be able to show the Swedish Migration Board in these various processes that are needed then to finally get a work permit and permanent residence permit.
Maria Persson Löfgren
[email protected]
Johanna Sjövall
[email protected]
Source: ICELAND NEWS