Criminal suspicions|The criminal activity was discovered by Attendo’s subsidiary in the summer of 2023, after which the company filed a criminal complaint. The company also cut off the customer relationship with the Ethiopian recruiter.
Care service company The recruitment partner of Attendo’s subsidiary Silkkitie is suspected of having collected threshold money from Ethiopian care workers.
The matter is proceeding to prosecution. The police are investigating the matter as a gross robbery.
The main suspect, who is a citizen of Finland, has been detained since July 2024. He had collected a threshold money of 4,000 euros from all the nurses who arrived from Ethiopia. According to the police, several got into debt due to the size of the amount.
Silk Road is not suspected of a crime. The criminal activity came to light in the summer of 2023, after which the company filed a criminal complaint.
Silkitie also severed the customer relationship with the recruitment partner operating in Ethiopia.
“The contract with him was made in 2021, when Silkkitie was an even smaller family business. In the spring of 2022, Silkkitie became part of Attendo, the operation began to become more professional, and in connection with the audit, suspicion arose about the collection of the threshold money”, CEO of Silkkitie Elisa Vepsäläinen commented to Helsingin Sanomat.
The first Ethiopians arrived in Finland at the end of 2022. The goal was for 1,000 care workers to arrive in Finland from Ethiopia.
Silk Road has promised to pay the threshold money back to the people who participated in the recruitment process. In total, there were about 400 people in the recruitment process. They had time to start training in the country of origin, so the persons were expected to arrive in Finland to work.
However, Silkkitie began to suspect in early 2024 that the main suspect in the case had also sold fake documents, such as diplomas, to those who wanted to go to Finland.
Silkkitie decided to end the training in the country of origin and fired the Ethiopians before they arrived in Finland.
“We filed a criminal complaint in the summer of 2023 and it took four months before the police started investigating it. We investigated the matter ourselves with the embassy, Migri and the Ethiopian consulate, and it turned out that there are people in the group who are trying to use this as a channel for illegal immigration.”
Company informed the Ethiopians that they should not come to Finland.
Despite this, a group of Ethiopians ended up in Finland in the spring of 2024.
“Attendo organized such an event for them, where we tested their language skills and sorted out their diplomas. We also organized extensive interviews.”
In the end, Silkkitie ended up hiring 36 Ethiopians.
“For their part, we were able to make sure that they have the diploma and work experience that they said.”
Vepsäläinen does not know how many Ethiopians eventually stayed in Finland.
“We have instructed them to fall under the human trafficking system in Finland and we have instructed some of them to apply for asylum.”
The main suspect managed to bring 298 Ethiopians to Finland before the suspicion of the threshold money. Vepsäläinen says that the feedback about them has been good.
“They have been skilled workers.”
Silk Road no longer recruits workers from Ethiopia. The company renewed its country selection criteria last year, and Ethiopia no longer meets the criteria.
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