Paraguayans are found in slave labor, says PF – 03/20/2023 – Market

A Federal Police operation in Rio de Janeiro claims to have found 19 Paraguayan workers in a situation analogous to slavery in two sheds that would serve as a clandestine cigarette factory in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense.

The only man they would keep in touch with, according to the PF, was armed and his face was hidden by a mask. Inside the factory, the Paraguayans would have been forced to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, in two shifts, which, according to the PF, included the early hours. They would have been in this situation three months ago.

No one was arrested in the action, called Operation Libertatis. The corporation did not disclose the names of those responsible, nor whether a defense was constituted.

Still according to the PF, the group did not receive payment and did not know where they were.

The Paraguayans told the police that they worked without protective equipment, that they could not move outside the factory surroundings, where the accommodation was also located, that they lived with open sewers and with the waste from cigarette production.

According to a note from the corporation, the workers left their country of origin blindfolded and under the promise that they would work in the clothing industry.

The factory in question would be responsible for distributing the cigarettes in Rio de Janeiro.

At the end of last month, in another operation of national repercussion in Rio Grande do Sul, men hired to work in the grape harvest in Bento Gonçalves, in the mountains of Rio Grande do Sul, were rescued in a situation analogous to slavery, according to authorities involved in the action.

They claimed to have suffered different episodes of violence involving broomstick beatings, bites, electric shocks and pepper spray attacks, in addition to poor working and living conditions.