Finland's Ovi

Following a probe published by Helsingin Sanomat towards the end of August, Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (National Coalition Party) wanted to clear up whether or not Thai massage parlours in Helsinki are hosting criminal activities.

The newspaper’s report suggested that sex services are freely available at all parlours offering Thai massage in Helsinki.

Based on a detailed investigation into the capital’s Thai massage businesses, the Helsinki Police Department published its own report on Tuesday, confirming that sex services are indeed generally offered at all Thai massage parlours in the city.

Moreover, the special inquiry by police implied that there are individuals behind at least some of the businesses offering Thai massage who are responsible for the operation in several localities.

However, the Helsinki Police Department did not find any evidence that would point to human trafficking or professional operation. Hence there was no reason to launch any preliminary investigations for the time being.

Chief Police Inspector Matti Rinne from the Ministry of the Interior reports that in other parts of Finland there are areas where local police departments are in fact preparing preliminary inquiries into Thai massage businesses.
According to the police, there are some 200 Thai massage parlours in Finland, 54 of them located in Helsinki.

Anne Holmlund supports the view expressed by the police that cross-administrative investigations should be launched into the operations of those parlours where evidence points to some illegal activities. Such investigations should combine the efforts of the police, the Tax Administration, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Directorate of Immigration, and the Finnish occupational safety districts.

“Such a project, conducted by public authorities, could bring us new information in order that we would possibly be able to launch a preliminary inquiry into the matter”, noted Police Commissioner Jukka Riikonen from the Helsinki Police Department. The police wish to take a role in the proceedings, but are not eager to be the main or only player.

The report indicated further that there is reason to suspect many Thai massage parlours in Finland of procurement, tax fraud, and accounting offences.
Human trafficking is not among those offences of which the Finnish Thai massage parlours are being suspected, as according to the interviews with the National Bureau of Investigation, the masseuses have been free to move from one place to another independently. Moreover, the offering of sex services has been voluntary.

“It is also worth noting that even though the official bookkeeping of the parlours show that their turnover is low, the number of such massage places is growing steadily”, says Matti Rinne.
As the results of the special investigation suggest that the businesses offering Thai massage must be profitable at least to some extent, the police are suspecting some Thai massage parlours of tax fraud and accounting offences.

When Helsingin Sanomat tested 30 Thai massage parlours in August, a receipt was given only in one place.

The Minister of the Interior is now calling for opportunities for the Thai masseuses to have alternative options to earn their living.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 5:54 am and is filed under Finland, Society, Crime, Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.