The government has moved to bring changes to the residence permit rules with the view to combat labour exploitation, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on Thursday.
The ministry prepared the draft of the proposal in this regard and sent out for comments and the deadline for submitting comments is August 27, 2026.
The government proposal is scheduled to be submitted to Parliament during the autumn session, and the changes would enter into force in March 2027.
The government said that the law will introduce measures to take proactive action against exploitation of foreign workers.
According to the draft law, it would be easier for the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to refrain from issuing residence permits to an employer if exploitation was suspected.
Migri can make a decision to suspend the issuance of residence permits to a company for a certain period of time.
Recruitment fees are also addressed in the proposal. Going forward, a residence permit would not be issued if the employer had charged the employee a fee for entering into an employment relationship.
Finally, the proposal includes technical amendments to the Seasonal Workers Act resulting from an infringement procedure launched by the European Commission.
Legislative amendments have already been carried out to improve the status of wild berry pickers. Efforts have also been made to ensure that people arriving in Finland for work receive multilingual information about their rights through several channels.
Ethical recruitment practices have been developed in countries partnering with Finland for international recruitment.
Earlier in January 2026, the government has taken the initiative to examine and prepare the necessary amendments to residence permit procedures with the view to combat labour exploitation.
- Residence permit
- Rules
- Amendment
- Labour abuse
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
