LONDON

Ukrainian refugees are exploited by Swedish companies which trick them into working without pay in the Nordic country, local media reported.

Along with Ukrainian refugees, over a hundred Russian-speaking builders and cleaners who worked for Swedish companies gathered to testify at a Stockholm union meeting that they were also exploited, local broadcaster SVT said.

“It is very difficult when you want to earn money for a living but are outright cheated,” one of the attendees, Svitlana Potyng said.

She escaped to Sweden with her son after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Potyng worked as a lawyer in her country, but she managed to get a job in the insurance industry in Sweden.

Despite having worked for several months in Sweden, the company that she works for did not pay her full salary and now she is worried that she will be left with no money.

“Every month, I wait for my salary, but I don't get the right amount of money. It's not good. I am here alone with my son and need money to buy food and pay rent. I have no support,” said Potyng.

Nina Krichun from Ukraine worked at various cleaning companies in Sweden. Several of the companies never paid her full salary.

“When you see this injustice, Sweden doesn't look so attractive anymore,” she said.

Ukrainian Pavel Potyng was employed in the Swedish trade; however, he also did not get his salary for the entire period that he worked, according to SVT.

Another worker Roman Ramazanov, who comes from Bulgaria, has been cheated by various different Swedish companies.

“I don't feel angry, but I have lost respect because it has been going on for so long now,” he said.

According to the Swedish trade union GS, 85-90% of seasonal workers in Sweden are migrants doing the underpaid work that Swedes are unwilling to do.