Exploited Thai workers: Debt, deception, and the dark side of berry picking in Europe

[webfact]

 

In the past 18 years, over 110,000 Thai workers embarked on a gruelling journey to Europe, enticed by the promise of lucrative pay in berry fields, yet behind the allure lies a sinister reality of exploitation, debt bondage, and shattered dreams.

 

From the rural heartlands of Thailand’s northeast, hopeful farmers borrowed staggering sums from banks and illegal lenders to finance their passage to the Nordic countries. What awaited them was not the prosperity they envisioned but a relentless cycle of debt and hardship.

 

Labour activist Junya Yimprasert revealed a shocking truth: over a decade and a half, a staggering 10 billion baht has been drawn from impoverished Thai workers to enrich the forest berry industries of Sweden and Finland, a loss swept under the rug of international commerce.

The berry companies, adept at preying on vulnerable populations, shifted their focus to workers from China and Vietnam in 2019, only to face uproar and swift repatriation due to abysmal working conditions. Threats of blacklisting and visa manipulation kept Thai workers silent, trapping them in a vicious cycle of debt and exploitation.

 

by Puntid Tantivangphaisal

Photo courtesy of The Nation

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2024-02-15

 

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[Andrew65]

People in the UK are outraged that local people don't want to do this kind of work. So much so, that last year a BBC journalist investigated. He visited a fruit farm that was quite close to where he lived. The farmer told him that a condition of the job was that he must live on-site, and money would be deducted for rent, probably to live in a shack or tent (even though he lived close by). When he questioned this he was told that he was "not suitable" for the job.

An old friend's Thai family had a pineapple farm in the north of Thailand, their labour was pretty much all imported from Laos.

[harleyclarkey]

Wow, geez I am really surprised.  I fully expected more from the ever so righteous Swedes  and Finns.  

Answer? Refuse to supply any further workers as others have done. 

[hotchilli]

If it's a well know fact why do they still go?

[PETERTHEEATER]

I too have endured that gruelling journey many times. Stuck in Economy Class seat for 11+ hours on Thai Airlines.😮‍💨

[Stevemercer]

I once knew a Thai massage lady who asked for help filling out all the forms to pick berries in Sweden. She went and ended up marrying a Swedish bloke and is now a citizen living in that country.

 

Similarly, my Thai sister-in-law is in Sydney picking vegetables. She is paid $180 per day (4,000 Baht) per day, cash in hand. It is hard work, but she is a farmer from Isan and can manage. She recently met and will marry an Australian bloke.

 

I always tell Thai ladies looking for foreigners, do whatever you can to work in a foreign/western country. It is much easier to meet/marry someone once you are in that country, compared to Thailand. 

[Colabamumbai]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

 

In the past 18 years, over 110,000 Thai workers embarked on a gruelling journey to Europe, enticed by the promise of lucrative pay in berry fields, yet behind the allure lies a sinister reality of exploitation, debt bondage, and shattered dreams.

 

From the rural heartlands of Thailand’s northeast, hopeful farmers borrowed staggering sums from banks and illegal lenders to finance their passage to the Nordic countries. What awaited them was not the prosperity they envisioned but a relentless cycle of debt and hardship.

 

Labour activist Junya Yimprasert revealed a shocking truth: over a decade and a half, a staggering 10 billion baht has been drawn from impoverished Thai workers to enrich the forest berry industries of Sweden and Finland, a loss swept under the rug of international commerce.

The berry companies, adept at preying on vulnerable populations, shifted their focus to workers from China and Vietnam in 2019, only to face uproar and swift repatriation due to abysmal working conditions. Threats of blacklisting and visa manipulation kept Thai workers silent, trapping them in a vicious cycle of debt and exploitation.

 

by Puntid Tantivangphaisal

Photo courtesy of The Nation

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2024-02-15

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Covers content
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ADBRO is the full service ad network for high impact contextual advertising with direct access to the exclusive in-image inventories across major local publishers.

We provide free creative adaptation into rich media, interactive and playable ads formats. Campaigns in our channel are delivered under guaranteed prices for actions with programmatic & managed delivery. We provide contextually segmented in-target audiences for over 60 industries with a full range of brand safety solutions.

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Was a foreigner banned from the Kingdom after writing about this subject, or similar? 

[spidermike007]

Threats of blacklisting and visa manipulation kept Thai workers silent, trapping them in a vicious cycle of debt and exploitation. 

 

Really? Nothing to do with the apathy of the Thai govt? 

 

One might expect more from these nations but greed is universal. People of a lower nature exist everywhere and they will do just about anything for money. 

 

I always knew there was something very dark about berries and I could never quite put my finger on it. Especially those wild and brambley blackberries. 

Edited February 15 by spidermike007

[plahgat]

9 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

If it's a well know fact why do they still go?

Because some years when the Blue berries and Lingon berries are plenty in the woods in Sweden they can make a profite,

but as climate is unpredictable they will not know if it is going to be a good year or not until they arrive, so they still come!

 

The ones who makes good money here are the Thai middle men who exploit their own people and charge extortionate sums so that the poor Eesarn farmers can go abroad to work!

 

[biggles45]

It's the same for overseas workers who leave the Philippines, around 10 million of them a year. 

[proton]

Not much better than slave labour

 

 

[uttradit]

9 minutes ago, proton said:

Not much better than slave labour

 

 

Fruit picking is hard work. Dream job said nobody ever.

[findlay13]

47 minutes ago, Stevemercer said:

I once knew a Thai massage lady who asked for help filling out all the forms to pick berries in Sweden. She went and ended up marrying a Swedish bloke and is now a citizen living in that country.

 

Similarly, my Thai sister-in-law is in Sydney picking vegetables. She is paid $180 per day (4,000 Baht) per day, cash in hand. It is hard work, but she is a farmer from Isan and can manage. She recently met and will marry an Australian bloke.

 

I always tell Thai ladies looking for foreigners, do whatever you can to work in a foreign/western country. It is much easier to meet/marry someone once you are in that country, compared to Thailand. 

Quite a few Australian farmers have been caught exploiting foreign workers too.I'm not saying it's all bad  but they should be careful if they can

[keithkarmann]

Taking advantage of vulnerable poorly educated Thai country people. 

Who is to blame for poor education and very low income in the villages? Easily enticed with the promise of high salaries in other countries and do not realise that a lot of times they are going to other countries to work in the sex industry.

 

 

[Thumbs]

The allure of high salaries (compared to Thailand) what they don’t factor in is the high cost of living expenses and the taxes each month that they will be subject to, heard it many times before “ my son is going to London and will be working at Dunkin’ Donuts and will be earning 80,000 baht a month” can see there heart sink when i tell them about London rents and uk tax and national insurance payments 

[Sig]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

lucrative pay in berry fields

Lucrative has been given a new definition.
Who in their right minds would believe working in a berry field would provide lucrative pay????
So what if the pay is more than Thailand! The worker needs to live on the economy they are working in. A berry picker on what planet will make lucrative pay?
Absolute, total, and utter stupidity to believe such a thing.

[barrybike]

If accommodation & meals are provided ok come to pick the berries but if you have to pay your own rent etc stay in Thailand & find a job is a better option , years ago we all picked strawberries in Ireland when we were young teenagers 13-16 , now no young  Irish would do it do it’s all polish /Lithuanians & Romanians doing it for the strawberry farmers 

Edited February 15 by barrybike

[dinsdale]

And closer to home

 

[dinsdale]

1 hour ago, Sig said:

Lucrative has been given a new definition.
Who in their right minds would believe working in a berry field would provide lucrative pay????
So what if the pay is more than Thailand! The worker needs to live on the economy they are working in. A berry picker on what planet will make lucrative pay?
Absolute, total, and utter stupidity to believe such a thing.

They send a lot of the money home.

[Sydebolle]

All rubbish and if anyone would have cared for professional journalism, this article would have been written completely different. Scandinavians fly in berry pickers on a yearly basis for many years already. 

I do not know, which ministry in Thailand (ministry of labour?) is in charge of channeling all this; fact is, that a prospective berry picker has to go through an agency which "fixes" the job, air ticket and visa for an exorbitant highway robbery price. Now, as long as these workers show up on the fields, do their jobs and return back to their home country, the Scandinavian employers are happy. The "reimbursement" of exorbitant fees, service fees, interests on prepaid tickets on behalf of the pickers etc. are all a homegrown Thai story. 

The same happened in the past with Saudi Arabia and North African countries where workers could make more money than back home but got nicely skimmed by those ever-so-kindly-helping agencies. 

It is big business by the local mafia but it is obviously easier to brainwash Khun Somchai from Yasothon, that all this is the fault of the employer. 

[johng]

1 hour ago, barrybike said:

If accommodation & meals are provided ok come to pick the berries but if you have to pay your own rent etc stay in Thailand & find a job is a better option , years ago we all picked strawberries in Ireland when we were young teenagers 13-16 , now no young  Irish would do it do it’s all polish /Lithuanians & Romanians doing it for the strawberry farmers 

That's because the farmers can no longer employ 13-16 year old natives

to pick berries at a low price..older natives won't do it for a low price so they bring in immigrant labour.

[Kinok Farang]

Thousands upon thousands of young fit Albanians who live off benefits in Sweden.Why don't they conscript those lazy baxxxxds?

[retarius]

Berry picking.....all that healthy walking around the ancient forests collecting berries and you get paid for it. If they called it a spa you'd be there running around eating nothing but nuts and berries and be thin as a rake in no time....and you expect to be paid on top of all the good benefits you are getting. Get away wit ya'

[stoner]

doesn't thailand itself brutally exploit migrant workers ? 

[zzaa09]

1 minute ago, stoner said:

doesn't thailand itself brutally exploit migrant workers ? 

Evidence or links?

[stoner]

2 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

Evidence or links?

 

have you ever seen a work camp in thailand next to a construction project ? 

 

and because you asked so nicely.....

 

 

[advancebooking]

6 hours ago, findlay13 said:

Quite a few Australian farmers have been caught exploiting foreign workers too.I'm not saying it's all bad  but they should be careful if they can

yes. I recently watched on youtube a vid by an english guy. The oz farmers were so rude and bullying. They should send someone undercover and record it all. These ozzie rednecks should be exposed

[Bday Prang]

             Plenty of unemployed wasters in the UK lazing around on benefits who could be forced to do this whilst waiting for a proper job, and no shortage of  "asylum seekers" who are probably quite used to scratting around in the bushes!   As long as they are only paid per kilo and are "theoretically" able with hard work to achieve an amount equal to their benefits or minimum wage  ( which ever is the least) lets have them doing it  No need to import any seasonal workers at all.

               Like anybody else I don't really care who picks the berries but I'd rather they were picked as cheaply as possible and that the price I pay reflects that. I'd also prefer them to have reasonably clean hands

                    

[Paris333]

The native population of the European Union are lazy and prefer to receive unemployment benefits rather than go to work manually.
Others prefer to work relaxed sitting all day in desk office at computer while they are not able to do maintenance work at their homes.
In Scandinavian countries I don't know how much Thai workers are paid, but in Greece they are paid €2,000 per month for eight hours of work and both accommodation and food are provided by the employer.

Finally in Greek region we do not have any descrimination to Asian civilians as it exist in USA particularly against Asia civilians who are also friendly and smiling people although many of them do not know Greek or English language because both langauges are in different alphabet.

 

 

[cmjl]

2 hours ago, Bday Prang said:

             Plenty of unemployed wasters in the UK lazing around on benefits who could be forced to do this whilst waiting for a proper job, and no shortage of  "asylum seekers" who are probably quite used to scratting around in the bushes!   As long as they are only paid per kilo and are "theoretically" able with hard work to achieve an amount equal to their benefits or minimum wage  ( which ever is the least) lets have them doing it  No need to import any seasonal workers at all.

               Like anybody else I don't really care who picks the berries but I'd rather they were picked as cheaply as possible and that the price I pay reflects that. I'd also prefer them to have reasonably clean hands

                    

They would then be bleating about their 'human rights' and that it's beneath their dignity to do manual work,since the UK government restricted what hours and what type of jobs youngsters can do and schools don't encourage youngsters to even think of manual work - education,education,education - we now have generations of snowflakes who are no good for anything bar sitting on their lazy backsides looking at social media and getting upset when they don't get 'likes'.