New change The goal of the Finnish migrant workforce, which originally came into law last October, is to prevent the exploitation of foreign workers by making it easier to detect suspected cases and report them to the authorities.
According to the previous law, if a migrant worker’s employment was terminated even as a result of exploitation, his or her basis of residence in Finland also ceased. This scared people to report suspected cases.
However, under the new amendment, a victim of exploitation can obtain a residence permit from another employer.
this is "significant change"by Olli Sorainen from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Labor.
"For the first time, the existence of a problem has been identified and tools have been provided to address it," Sorainen said.
Authorities need “constructive trust” with victims
The Ministry commissioned a study by the Seinäjoki unit of the Finnish Immigration Center on the feasibility and effectiveness of the new measures.
A study completed in January found that the successful implementation of the law reform requires close co-operation between the various parties and stronger links with potential victims.
Previously, the Finnish authorities working in the area have focused on monitoring work and residence permit issues, but now there is a need to focus more on the legal protection of victims. Toni AhvenainenResearcher at the Migration Institute who conducted the study.
"The authorities need to strengthen their role in defending the victim, focusing on cooperation and confidence-building." The perch said.
Sorainen of the Ministry agreed with this assessment, but pointed out that there are many challenges in building this trust, the least of which is that much of the exploitation often comes from countries where the child has learned not to trust the authorities since childhood.
"If something happens, the police are the last person they turn to." Sorainen said.
However, the law aims to make it as easy as possible to detect and expose exploitation, allowing victims or whistleblowers to be assisted by intermediary organizations and, if necessary, to report anonymously.
"It is important that someone tells the victim that this is probably a case of abuse that should be taken forward. Building trust is difficult," The perch said.
Sorainen added that he hoped that information about the change in the law would be disseminated as widely as possible, as the ministry’s press releases do not usually reach potential victims of exploitation. Networks are crucial here, he said.
"Cooperation between different organizations is very important," he said, adding that in the past, silence has allowed blackmail and exploitation of workers to continue.
"Not all cases have come to light. The effectiveness of this change in law will be seen if more cases are discovered," The perch decides.
Source: The Nordic Page