[NYTr] Brazilian Police Free 1, 000 Slave-Laborers from Ethanol Sugar Plantation
 
Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 19:38:28 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Granma Daily - July 4, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art103.html

Slaves Freed at Brazil Sugar Plantation

The Brazilian police liberated more than a thousand workers of a sugar
cane plantation that were employed under conditions of slavery.

The workers were at a plantation of the Amazonian state of Para, where
sugar cane is planted for the purpose of producing ethanol (ethyl
alcohol for replacing gasoline).

According to sources of the Mobile Group for Combating Slave Labor, a
dependency of the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment, the
workers were recruited about six months ago.

The Brazilian authorities stated that this was the most important
operation against slavery that has taken place to date.

The employees were forced to work an average of fourteen hours per day
and they lived piled up in barracks. Some of them were sick, due to the
very poor food provided and the unhealthy water.

INDEBTED

The workers contract debts with the plantation owners because they are
forced to buy food and other basic supplies at exorbitant prices. For
that reason they must work under conditions similar to slavery in order
to pay their debts.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), in Brazil they
are between 25,000 and 40,000 slaves. Since 2003, more than 15,000
slaves have been set free, states a BBC report.
       
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