A Nepali couple in Finland sentenced to jail on charge of forced labor

The couple brought Nepali workers to Finland for forced labor in the restaurants they owned in Tampere, according to Finnish media.

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Kathmandu: A Nepali couple, Rima Sapkota , 39, and Dila Ram Sapkota , 48, have been sentenced to prison on charge of bringing Nepali workers to Finland for forced labor, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Pirkanmaa district court on Friday sentenced them to prison for human trafficking in the restaurant industry.

According to the court, the couple brought Nepali workers to Finland for forced labor in the restaurants they owned in Tampere. The employees worked in the restaurants from morning until late at night completely without days off or six days a week and they were not given holidays.

According to the court, the employees were not paid an appropriate salary for their work. In addition, they were forced to transfer tens of thousands of euros to the couple and the persons they indicated, says the media report.

The district court sentenced Rima Sapkota , 39, to two years and ten months in prison and Dila Ram Sapkota , 48, to three years and eight months in prison. Also, the court ordered them and their companies to pay the victims a total of hundreds of thousands of Euros in wages, as well as suffering and other compensation.

According to the district court, four Nepalis were victims of human trafficking, in addition to which the fifth was a victim of discriminatory employment discrimination and the sixth was a victim of employment discrimination.