STORY-TRÅD·industri

Inspectors rescue 479 victims of modern slavery in August

Brazilian authorities rescued 479 people of various nationalities from labor analogous to slavery from August 1 through 31. According to federal prosecutors, 75 victims were women, nine were working in domestic settings (1.9%), and 13 of those rescued were children or adolescents. Another notable feature of Operation Rescue VI is the origin of the exploited individuals. In addition to Brazilians, 66 migrant victims were located from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau. Notícias relacionadas:Murders, cases of slave‑like labor in rural areas on rise in Brazil.Tariff hike: Brazil leads fight against forced labor despite US claims.According to data from this operation, released Wednesday (Sep. 9), Brazil’s Southeast accounted for 55.7 percent of the victims (267), the majority of whom (208) were in the state of Minas Gerais. Most of the rescues (292 victims) took place in rural areas. The economic sector with the highest number of cases was coffee farming, with 53 victims, followed by onion farms (47), potato farms (44), and other seasonal crops (43). In urban areas, the number of victims rescued stood at 178 (37.2%). The construction industry accounted for nearly half of these (85 people, or 47.7% of the victims). Launched in 2021, the operation’s task force combines the efforts of the federal prosecutors with those of labor prosecutors as well as the Federal Police, the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Over the course of five years, these efforts have resulted in the rescue of 1,192 workers without formal employment contracts. Notifications During inspections conducted last month, employers caught subjecting workers to these conditions were notified and urged to cease operations and terminate the employment contracts, after formalizing them retroactively. The total amount of back pay and severance comes to BRL 1.4 million. In addition to slave-like labor, the implicated employers will face charges for other violations, such as child labor and failure to comply with health and safety regulations. According to the prosecutors, during Operation Rescue VI, 1,836 notices of violation were issued in connection with these cases, as well as orders to suspend and embargo activities posing serious and potential risks to workers’ physical integrity and health. New law for domestic workers In early July, a law was enacted that expands protection for victims of labor analogous to slavery in the domestic setting, allowing labor inspectors to enter homes to investigate suspected irregularities without needing a court order. The law also gives priority to victims in the Bolsa Família cash transfer program and mandates the application of the Maria da Penha Law when the victim is a woman. The combination with the Maria da Penha Law should make it easier to obtain emergency protective measures and, as a result, prevent employers from further abusing rescued victims. Statistics show that the majority of people engaged in paid domestic work – which takes various forms, such as the activities performed by day laborers, nannies, gardeners, and caregivers – are women of color. In 2018, a survey by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) identified 6.2 million people engaged in paid domestic work, of whom 92% (5.7 million) are women and 3.9 million are black women (62.9%), the most vulnerable segment of Brazil’s socioeconomic pyramid, also in terms of gender-based violence.