Close to 1,000 people were rescued from modern slave labor in Brazil in 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Last year, 942 people were rescued from slave-like conditions in Brazil. Updated on Tuesday, May 11, the data were collected by the Observatory for the Eradication of Slave Labor and Trafficking in Persons, developed by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Minas Gerais was the state with the highest number of rescues in 2020, with 351 cases, followed by the Federal District, Pará, Goiás and Bahia.

Martin Hahn, director of ILO’s Office in Brazil, alerts that the Covid-19 pandemic tends to worsen this scenario for immigrants, blacks and the excluded, with increased risk of unacceptable labor forms.

Of the victims rescued from slave labor in 2020, 17% were in forest production activities; 15% in coffee cultivation and 10% in cattle raising. Among urban activities, retail trade stands out, with 10% of cases, followed by industrial assembly and metallic structures and the building and real estate sector.

Working in slave-like conditions is a crime and a serious human rights violation. According to the Labor Prosecutor’s Office, thousands of people are still exploited in Brazil through forced labor, debt servitude, degrading working conditions, and exhausting working hours.

To alert society and the government against this illegal labor form, the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Committee (CPT) has been developing the campaign “Olho Aberto para não Virar Escravo” (Keep your eyes open so as not to turn into slaves) since 1997. Friar Xavier Plassat, the campaign’s coordinator, considers that this situation reflects an exclusionary social structure in Brazil.

The Observatory for the Eradication of Slave Labor and Trafficking in Persons collects data from public agencies’ activities between 1995 and 2020. Over this period, 55,712 people were found in slave-like conditions, with the agricultural sector accounting for 80% of victims.

The International Labor Organization estimates that, worldwide, this situation affects over 25 million people, including women and children. The practice generates about US$150 billion annually in illegal profits.

In Brazil, cases of slave-like labor can be reported through dialing 100, the Labor Prosecutor’s Office website, or the Ministry of Economy’s Labor Secretariat.

Source: Agência Brasil

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