At the end of July 2021, about 50 people will come from Bulgaria to Älvsbyn because they have been promised to pick berries, earn thousands of kronor and get good housing. Instead, children and adults are stranded on a gravel field next to the road where they are forced to camp. The berry pickers feel cheated by a man we call the berry boss. The man himself denies having cheated, misled or committed any crime against them.
Work towards human exploitation
Eva Norlin is regional coordinator against human trafficking in northern Sweden. Her job is, among other things, to support municipalities and authorities, so that they do the right thing when there is a suspicion that people are being exploited and exploited, for example in the berry industry.
– The experience initially was precisely that the public and everyone around defined this as an exploitation. But that you may not have seen these people and especially the children who were accompanying, as victims of crime.
Despite the fact that during the summer of 2021, the police will launch a preliminary investigation into suspected human exploitation in Älvsbyn, the social services do not identify the berry pickers as possible victims of human trafficking or human exploitation. They therefore lose the support and help they are entitled to by law.
Älvsbyn has been educated
Nataliya Renlund, head of individual and family care in Älvsbyn, says that they gave the group help based on the legislation that applies to EU migrants, but admits that they did not treat the persons as potential victims of crime due to ignorance.
– We will not handle it in the same way until next summer. We will gather together, go through and draw up an action plan, says Nataliya Renlund.
Source: ICELAND NEWS