Number of people rescued from slave labor decreases

Slave labor lives on to the present day in Brazil, as evidenced by efforts to rescue workers from slave-like work conditions. According to José Guerra, coordinator of the National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor (Conatrae), more than 45,000 workers have been freed from slavery since 1995, and the number of rescues has decreased although the number of operations remains the same.

The Catholic-d Pastoral Commission on Land (T) reported 197 occurrences of slave labor in Brazil in 2013 involving 2,874 workers, out of whom 2,208 were rescued. This figure is down from the 2,730 workers rescued in 2012 out of a total 3,680 exploited. The Southeast was the region with the most workers rescued last year, 1,186.

“We're at a loss here. We don't know if slave labor is on the wane or if it persists in more sophisticated forms. What we do know is that the number of rescued workers is decreadsing. But what this actually means is something we still have to figure out,” says Guerra.

Although this type of crime is usually related to farming, T reported that 914 workers were rescued from construction in 2013. Sewing and mining are among other non-agricultural industries where labor exploitation was detected.

Guerra is confident that the Constitutional Amendment Bill (PEC) on slave labor might help inhibit the practice. “The threat of financial loss is more discouraging to exploiters. It makes them anticipate heavier prospects of punishment, including land expropriation, rather than just subjecting them to istrative penalties or criminal cases that just drag on endlessly.”

Moreover, he believes that once enacted, the new bill will make it easier for workers rescued from slavery to return to the regular job market. “These workers won't be misled again if they can earn income. They end up lured by slave labor because the proposals seem attractive at first, compared to the conditions they live in.”

Translated by Mayra Borges