The Hindu Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004
Slave labour in Brazil By Paul Brown An unpublished report for the ILO says that despite the best efforts of the Brazilian Government, slave labour continues in the country's interior. AN ESTIMATED 25,000 people are working as slave labourers in Brazil clearing the Amazon jungle for ranchers, or producing pig iron in the forest using charcoal smelters, according to a new study. An unpublished report for the Geneva-based International Labour Organisation concludes that despite the best efforts of the Government of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva to free slaves and prosecute offenders, the level of lawlessness in the country's interior means that the practice continues. The report also uncovers a new area of labour "analogous to slavery," where men, women and children who are illegal immigrants from Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay are working in sweatshops in Sao Paulo. Workshop owners are part of a flourishing cheap clothes industry that uses the fear of deportation to enforce harsh conditions under which people are sometimes locked up where they work and sleep. The London-based Guardian newspaper was passed a copy of the report because anti-slavery campaigners feared that the ILO was suppressing it. They believe that officials are nervous of criticism of the organisation's failure to make an impact on the situation. The report is also sensitive because it shows that the United States is directly benefiting from the proceeds of slavery. But Roger Plant, head of the ILO's forced labour programme in Geneva, denied the report was being withheld. He said it had been held back to include more statistics and it would be updated and published next year. Mr. Plant said the report made clear that the Brazilian Government was making efforts to attack slavery, and it was unfair to single out a state when Peru and Bolivia also had slaves, probably in similar numbers. New figures show that since the Lula Government took office in January 2002 with a promise to end slave labour, 5,400 slave workers have been released and £ 1.4 million paid to them in compensation. The author of the report, Jan Rocha, said on Sunday: "After a good start cracking down, the Government has given in to the landowners' lobby's pressure in Congress to delay a bill that would confiscate their estates when slave labour has been found, in exchange for their votes on other bills. "As the report pointed out, the scandalous fact is that many federal Congressmen and regional politicos have been found using slave labour on their cattle ranches - so some of the men who got the law postponed are those who personally benefit from the delay." Attempts to tackle slave labour have been hindered by the lawlessness of the territories involved and the puny punishments that have been handed out. Ms. Rocha describes how slave workers live in hovels under plastic sheets without sanitation, with the job of clearing the forest for soya bean plantations and cattle. In the charcoal smelters they work without protective clothing in extreme heat. The report concludes that the only way slavery will disappear is that if everyone regards it as "a national outrage" and ranches and businesses are confiscated as a punishment. - Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Careers: Over 65,000 jobs online Go to: http://yahoo.naukri.com/