During a meeting that the Finnish Minister of Labour Arto Santonen and his Thai counterpart Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn had, the latter conditionally agreed to give permission to Thai berry pickers to travel to Finland for seasonal work, EU Helpers reports.

Finland has granted a total of 900 residence permits to Thai berry pickers for the 2024 season.

However, since the Thailand authorities need to issue an exit permit to Thais who want to enter Finland for work purposes during the harvest season, the process has not gone smoothly this year.

The Thai government has not granted any exit permits to its nationals so far this year, pushing the Finnish authorities to require talks on the matter.

As Yle News explains, discussions between the Labour Ministers of the two countries have been ongoing for the past two weeks. After the last discussion that took place on Friday, Thailand has conditionally agreed to issue exit permits to its citizens.

Nonetheless, the Thai authorities stressed that they still wants to examine the employment contract of the pickers who have been granted residence permit to ensure that they are not being exploited in Finland.

Data show that last week alone, Thailand prevented a total of 43 of its citizens from leaving for Finland to work as berry pickers. Of those not issued an exit permit, 36 were men and seven were women.

Finnish Berry Firms Companies Accused of Exploiting & Mistreating Foreign Seasonal Harvesters

The decision of Thailand to not grant exit permits to its citizens who want to reach Finland for seasonal work purposes was taken after some Finnish berry firms allegedly were accused of exploiting and mistreating foreign seasonal workers.

According to Yle News, around ten people are suspected of committing crimes related to the treatment of berry pickers.

Commenting on the current situation and the dire need for seasonal harvesters, the Senior Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of Employment, Jarmo Tiukkanen, said that a final approval from Thailand authorities will come later today or on Wednesday.

The same said for Yle News that the Thai authorities want to verify that the country’s citizens get paid enough for working as berry pickers in Finland.

Calculations show that the minimum wage for foreign berry pickers stands at around €1,700 [per season for those who work five days a week with an eight-hour schedule.

On the other hand, the salary can reach up to €4,000 for those who work overtime – six days a week with a maximum of 11 hours per day.