RIGHTS: Brazil Makes Headway against Modern-Day Slavery

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 21 2002 (IPS) - Nearly 1,600 workers living in slave-like conditions in rural Brazil were freed last year through efforts of the Labour Ministry, twice as many as in 2000, but the Roman Catholic Church here alerts that there are still more than 6,000 people living in servitude in this South American country.

The increase in the number of slavery cases resolved does not mean this social scourge is expanding, says Claudio Secchin, head of the Labour Ministry’s support division for its mobile inspection team.

Secchin told IPS that conditions are improving for the fight against this serious human rights problem, thanks to the increase in the number of denunciations, favoured by the development of telecommunications in the Brazilian interior, particularly the recent increase in the number of public telephones.

He said the interior of Brazil no longer suffers the “deep information gap” that left people vulnerable to the actions of “gatos” (literally ‘cats’), as those who recruit cheap labour for the “latifundios”, or large landholdings, are known.

According to the Labour Ministry official, 1,433 workers were removed from slavery last year, and another 10 percent of the cases have yet to be confirmed, which would bring the total up to 1,600.

The Pastoral Commission of the Land (CPT), a body of the Catholic Church that has been tracking rural conflicts and violence since the 1970s, last year recorded 2,062 cases of work slavery. At least seven of the individuals were under 18.

For every case discovered “there are at least three that remain undetected,” which demonstrates the scope and continuity of the problem in Brazil, Antonio Canuto, one of CPT’s national coordinators, told IPS.

To speak of slavery in today’s world could seem strange to some, he said. But it is a legally defined concept, applying to cases in which an individual is prohibited from leaving the work place and subjected to inhumane conditions.

Enslaved workers in Brazil are kept prisoner on farms or ranches by physical and psychological coercion, controlled by armed individuals and threatened with death.

Taken in by false promises of well-paying jobs, the labourers soon find that they are deep in debt, owing their “employers” the cost of transport for the journey to the ranch or farm that has been carved out of the jungle, “rent” for housing in rickety shacks or tents, as well as the price of their work tools and supplies, which they must acquire at the company store.

Many of these modern-day slaves are illiterate and, lacking any information on their human and labour rights, they often feel morally indebted to their bosses, even though they live in run- down encampments, said Secchin.

This phenomenon is concentrated in the northern Brazilian states of Maranhao and Pará, on the eastern edge of the Amazon region, though there have also been cases of slavery recorded in the southeastern states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, considered the most developed in the country.

The fight against slave labour in Brazil gained effectiveness with the creation of the Mobile Group, a team of inspectors from the Labour Ministry, federal police agents, government prosecutors and other authorities.

There has been a sustained increase in the number of workers removed from slave conditions since 1995, but several factors contribute to the continuation of this abusive form of labour relations.

CPT representative Canuto stated that impunity encourages the ranchers and “gatos” to continue their crimes because, even after being identified by the police, they usually face only minor penalties.

The Labour Ministry’s figures show that ranchers caught by the authorities last year were forced to pay reparations totalling 1.4 million reals (some 570,000 dollars) to the workers they had held in slavery. But only one of the slaveholders ended up in prison, admitted Secchin.

Legal loopholes and the slow legal process prevent more effective action against the perpetrators, he said.

Although the Labour Ministry has the support of the federal police and of the Public Ministry, Secchin said, the same cannot be said of the tax, social security or environmental authorities, whose cooperation is necessary in order to more rigorously fight slavery and related crimes.

Deforestation, an environmental crime, is one of the principal activities for which slaves are used, said the official. They clear the forest for cattle-raising operations and to create farmland.

Much of the Mobile Group’s success is due to reports from the CPT, which has representation scattered throughout rural areas, said coordinator Canuto.

The CPT is demanding more effective action from the government and has called for the passage of legislation that would allow the expropriation, without compensation, of properties where slave labour is exploited. Such penalties are already applied in cases of land used to grow illegal crops, such as marijuana.

The legislative bill proposed by the Catholic group has been bogged down in parliament for several years, though it was already approved by the Senate and now only needs the go-ahead from the Chamber of Deputies, said Secchin.