Slave labor: rescues are already a record in the semester – 06/15/2023 – Market

Even before the end of June, the number of workers rescued in a situation similar to slavery in 2023 is already the highest for a first semester in 12 years, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Employment.

Until the 14th of June, the folder found 1,443 people in work analogous to slavery. In the entire first half of 2022, there were 771.

Maurício Krepsky, head of the Ministry’s Inspection Division for the Eradication of Slave Labor, claims that the record will be even greater. Considering the average of daily redemptions, he estimates that the number will reach around 1,500 by the end of the month.

If this is confirmed, the first half of this year will have a record of redemptions in relation to the same periods of the last 14 years. This year’s total is surpassed only by the first half of 2009, when there were 1,908 registrations.

Complaints of work analogous to slavery can be made via Dial 100 or forwarded to the Labor Tax Audit through the Ipê System, via the link

The last rescue took place this Wednesday (14). Tax auditors and federal police found three men in a work situation analogous to slavery in a potato harvest in the region of General Carneiro (PR). According to the investigation, they worked barefoot for 13 hours a day, on average, under a temperature of around 6ºC.

Still according to the investigation, they slept on mattresses on the floor, in a room with leaks and infiltrations. At harvest, they ate the cold lunchboxes, as there was no place to heat them.

The victims are from Maranhão, Pernambuco and Goiás. After the action, they returned to their cities with road tickets paid for by their employer. The three were referred to receive unemployment insurance.

Goiás and Rio Grande do Sul were the states where inspectors found the most irregularities.

One of the biggest operations of the semester released 212 people in the cities of Itumbiara (GO), Porteirão (GO) and Araporã (MG) in March. The victims worked in the planting of sugar cane for an outsourced company that served four farms and a mill.

Most had been brought from Piauí, Maranhão and Rio Grande do Norte and taken to Goiás. The state leads the rescue ranking so far, with 390 people.

The inspection identified irregularities such as the charge for renting the shacks for housing and work tools, in addition to the lack of food.

The city of Bento Gonçalves (RS) appears among the 15 Brazilian municipalities with the most fines. The rescue of 207 men in the grape harvest reverberated across the country in February.

The workers were found in a degrading work situation in accommodation belonging to the Fênix company, which provided services to the Aurora, Garibaldi and Salton wineries. Reports include grueling journeys, physical assaults and xenophobia.

At the time, the wineries responded that they were unaware of the situation and did not condone slave labor.

The victims were from Bahia and had been taken to Rio Grande do Sul, where 304 workers have been released so far.

Back in their home state, at least half of the grape harvest workers must be settled on goat farms in the interior of Bahia, according to the Vida Pós Resgate project, by the Federal University of Bahia.