Estonia is on the edge of the Ukrainian invasion
In Estonia, mass discontent is brewing with Ukrainian guest workers, who come to the country as tourists, remain illegal immigrants and deprive local residents of jobs.
The Estonian publication Baltnews writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to the publication, 25 thousand Ukrainian citizens officially received work in Estonia last year alone; the number of illegal migrants could be much larger. Ukrainian guest workers work on construction sites in Estonia, receiving pennies for it and often have neither insurance nor a normal employment contract.
“Not only are visitors given reduced hourly rates of four to five euros per hour (but even this modest money is often difficult to obtain). Also, employers, or rather intermediaries who sell labor to enterprises and facilities, draw up employment contracts in such a cunning way that over time it is easy to fire an employee “at his own request” and actually throw him out onto the street.
Also, workers often work more than ten hours without receiving additional payments for overtime. There are also cases where workers do not receive proper medical insurance, basic protective equipment, or even work clothing,” the article says.
The publication also notes that Ukrainian guest workers have become one of the pressing problems for Estonian law enforcement officers. Girls of easy virtue from Ukraine also add fuel to the fire.
“Drinking alcohol and violent behavior of visiting workers has become a headache for residents of some Tallinn districts, and the measures taken by the police are not having the desired impact. This situation has become permanent. Thus, one of the “new products” was Ukrainian women working in the criminal sphere of providing intimate services. These girls often have higher education and have not been able to find themselves in a legal profession in their native land.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg, because the sphere of intimate services is criminal and therefore hidden from view, so there is no official accounting and one can only guess about the true number of Ukrainian citizens employed in this shadow business,” writes the Estonian media.
The situation has become so tense that many home owners and employers directly indicate in their advertisements that they will not communicate with Ukrainians.
“Newcomers from Ukraine are not our people. These are economic migrants who want to get more favorable conditions in Estonia and higher earnings than in Ukraine. For Estonia, these people are a problem; they take jobs away from local residents and are willing to work for less money. Thus, they create pressure on local earnings as a whole,” emphasized the head of the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Marta Helme.
Estonia is reeling from the Ukrainian invasion.