Yanomamis are rescued from slave labor – 05/22/2023 – Market

Two Yanomami are part of a group of piassaba workers rescued in conditions similar to slavery in 2014, according to a public civil action filed in court by the MPT (Ministry of Labor). The indigenous people were the last to receive the severance pay determined by the Labor Court.

Payments only took place eight years later, in 2022, due to the difficulty in locating the Yanomami, the lack of basic documents required in the course of the lawsuit and the lack of bank accounts for the deposit.

The exploitation of indigenous people –Yanomamis and other ethnic groups– in the extraction of piassava continues, as shown by the Sheet in a series of reports.

The MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) in Amazonas also pointed out the continuation of exploration, in a note sent to the newspaper after the publication of the reports. “The exploitation of piaçabeiros (indigenous and non-indigenous) work continues in the region of the middle and upper Rio Negro”, he said.

In 2014, an action by the mobile group to combat slave labor, which included Labor auditors and members of the MPT and MPF, resulted in the rescue of 13 workers who worked in the extraction of piassaba in the region of the middle Rio Negro.

The group of extractivists spent the nights in canvas shacks, wooden huts or even in boats in streams close to the piaçabais. In these places there were venomous animals such as spiders, scorpions and snakes, according to inspection documents.

There was no salary payment or guarantee of any labor rights. The system adopted was aviamento, in which the so-called bosses and little bosses provided basic supplies –such as flour and biscuits– and fuel for workers to remain for weeks in the piaçabais. Payment is made with the extracted fiber, and there is debt in the course of this process.

The group of 13 piaçabeiros was rescued from conditions analogous to slavery and the Labor Court ordered that the identified boss, Luiz Cláudio Rocha, known as Carioca, pay severance pay and indemnities to the workers. The decision was confirmed in other instances, and accounts were blocked for reimbursement.

The report was unable to contact Rocha.

The MPT calculated the total to be paid to the 13 workers at BRL 817 thousand, according to values ​​updated in 2020. The calculation includes compensation for collective moral damages, compensation for individual damages and indirect terminations.

In the case of the Yanomami, individual moral damages were calculated at R$ 23,000, in current values. The termination should be R$ 2,400 for one and R$ 3,400 for another.

The payment came up against the lack of a CPF or bank account, and it was necessary to resort to radio communications and the TRE (Regional Electoral Court) in Amazonas to locate the two indigenous people.

As of February 2022, the Labor Court had not been able to locate the two Yanomami. They were located in the following months, and payments took place until May of that year.

A Sheet showed that the extraction of piassaba in the region of the middle Rio Negro includes the exploitation of Yanomami who live in villages in the indigenous land located on the side of the Amazon – the territory is in two states, Amazonas and Roraima.

Exploitation, within a rudimentary model of indebtedness of indigenous and non-indigenous people, takes place in the midst of a Funai (National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples) blackout in the region. The blackout, with the performance of only one substitute coordinator, one permanent employee and one outsourced at the unit in Barcelos (AM), continues in the Lula government (PT).

Neither Funai nor the MPI (Ministry of Indigenous Peoples) responded to the report’s questions.

Old bosses continue to work in the region. This is the case of Carioca, which has representatives in communities on the tributaries of the Negro River and a piassaba shed in Barcelos. The businessman was not located by the report.

After the publication of the series, the MPT stated that it will investigate the exploitation of groups of Yanomamis in the extraction of piassaba, a fiber used in the manufacture of brooms.

The reports will be included in a procedure already opened by the MPT, as evidence for the investigation and as a basis for new steps to be taken in the region.

The MPF in Amazonas, in a note sent to Sheet, said he continues to monitor the situation in the region. The Prosecutor’s Office stated that it demands from the Amazonas government and the federal government the fulfillment of a TCT (term of technical cooperation) signed in 2014, with the purpose of improving the productive chain of piassaba.

“The reality is that very few concrete measures were adopted from 2014, when the TCT was signed, until today”, quotes the note.

A procedure initiated by the MPF investigates the disrespect for the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples in the piaçaba prison. “The MPF has verified compliance with the 2014 term, however few effective measures have actually been implemented by public bodies. The MPF is studying whether or not it will be necessary to bring the issue to court.”

A meeting was held in January 2023, with the participation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, at which time the Superintendence of Labor in Amazonas stated that new actions should be taken to combat slave labor in the extraction of piassaba, according to the MPF.