Sweden: The court sentenced a man for forcing Poles to slave work

The Malmoe court sentenced a 35-year-old man on Tuesday to 2 years and 10 months imprisonment for forcing 3 Poles to slave labor. The conviction is simply a precedent and can aid fight against the exploitation of the workforce.

Judge Hakan Olaussen stressed that Poles worked in very hard conditions for six months without agreed payment.

– 1 of the men was barely paid. For a time he was so hungry that he ate apples from the orchard and dog food – Olaussen justified his sentence.

The 35-year-old was formally convicted of trafficking in human beings, and the man is besides expected to pay the victims a full of 900 1000 crowns of compensation (about 83 1000 euros). 2 of his co-workers received prison sentences for money laundering in business activities, 1 of which was suspended and the another was 1 year and 3 months.

According to Linda Erhorn of the Swedish border police, the conviction is simply a precedent, it will give a clue as to what conduct leads to a conviction for trafficking in human beings due to the usage of workers.

Three Poles, in a homelessness crisis, were lured to work in confederate Sweden with promises of attractive earnings. In fact, as they testified, they received only tiny amounts for hours of over-work, without protection for six days of the week or without days off at all. They lived in an unheated attic under hard sanitary conditions.

Soon after their arrival, the workers learned from their 35-year-old boss, who recruited them that they truly owed him money. The debt was to finance travel, accommodation and tools. Poles testified that they were under constant control of the boss. The man in fact hired workers illegally and offered their services to his customers, whom he did not lack.

Gehenna gastarbeiters lasted six months, and the case came to light erstwhile 1 of the injured Poles in a state of cold was found by a police car in February. A man without money and papers was walking along the E65 road a fewer kilometres to the nearest town of Ystad. The police then conducted a search on the farm close Skurup, from where 2 more Poles were released.