Over 19,000 people rescued from modern slavery in Brazil since 2010

On October 20, 166 people were rescued from a farm in Água Fria de Goiás, in the countryside of the central-western Brazilian state of Goiás. The group, which included children and teenagers, had been working under precarious conditions analogous to slavery, extracting straw from corn to be used in manufacturing cigarettes. For each kilogram of straw they extracted, workers would receive just BRL 5 (USD 0.90), from which was discounted the cost of their knives and uniforms.

None of the workers were registered and their labor rights were denied by their employer, who housed them in dirty lodgings without beds or sanitation. Some of the workers had flu symptoms upon rescue, and presented wounds on their joints as a result of their repetitive movements.

This was the biggest slavery rescue operation in Brazil this year. Such raids are typically carried out by labor inspectors along with the support of the Federal Police and federal prosecutors. As is customary in these cases, the rescued group was made up of people who had left their hometowns in search of income opportunities elsewhere.

The coordinator of the slavery bust in Água Fria de Goiás, labor inspector Marcelo Campos, said that...