Migrant workers on strike in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Police, interpreters and embassy staffers have been sent to a rural community in Sweden to mediate a conflict among Vietnamese migrant workers.

The laborers, who went on strike to protest working conditions, are divided on whether they should return to their jobs picking blueberries, Sweden's The Local reported Friday.

The newspaper says 17 migrants who come from southern Vietnam want to continue harvesting but their co-workers from northern Vietnam have locked them up to prevent them from doing so.

Some 120 Vietnamese workers went on strike Tuesday in the small rural community of Branas complaining it was impossible to pick enough blueberries to cover the cost of their trip to Sweden and still have money left over.

The Local says some of the workers had taken out loans on their homes and borrowed money to make the trip.