Published by
em
Por
Providing dignified operating conditions in Brazil can be difficult, but it is the mandatory way to combat slave-like labor. The conclusion drawn from specialists interviewed through Agência Brasil amid the large number of personnel rescued in recent months.
For the labor prosecutor and regional coordinator of the fight against slave labor, Tiago Muniz Cavalcanti, the scenario must be addressed on two fronts: prevention and repression.
“When we communicate about prevention, there is prevention number one, when the crime [of bonded labor] has not yet occurred, and secondary prevention, when it is mandatory for the victim after having committed it, in front of the points of vulnerability, and bring him back to dignified conditions. Work so that they are not attacked again. The primary and secondary prevention bureaucracy is our big bottleneck,” he said.
It is the duty of the State, he argued, to put into effect public policies to publicize the validity of social rights, adding decent work, especially among potential victims. , as a society, is to review all points of vulnerability of people, to reduce the degrees of exploitation,” Cavalcanti said.
In one line, Marina Ferro, executive director of the Institute of the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labor (InPacto), says that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased unemployment and the number of precarious jobs on offer.
“Fighting the hard work of slaves is about giving opportunities to other people and reducing inequality. The more unequal our society is, the more precarious those cases become. If we lift other people out of poverty and hunger and create decent opportunities, this challenge tends to be less frequent,” he said.
The repercussions of slavery in Brazil are still present, he said, because after the emancipation of slaves a policy of social integration was not implemented for them. “That’s why we remain a very unequal nation, where vulnerability is perpetuated and human beings are not treated with dignity,” he said.
Under Brazilian law, paintings analogous to slavery are explained as any forced activity carried out during exhausting hours or in degrading situations with a significant restriction on the painter’s freedom of movement.
Another form of new slavery identified as such in Brazil is debt bondage, when workers’ freedom of movement is restricted through their employer on the pretext that the victim owes a safe amount of money.
Since 1995, inspections and rescues have been carried out in Brazil through labor auditors in collaboration with the Labor Prosecutor’s Office, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the Federal Public Ministry and the Public Defender’s Office, among agencies.
These repressions have multiplied in recent years. In early March, security forces reportedly rescued 523 victims of slave-like labor. In 2022, another 2,575 people would face new slavery, a third more than in 2021.
Brazilian hard work prosecutors and the International Labor Organization also unveiled the Observatory for the Eradication of Slavery and Human Trafficking, which gives facts and figures on hard work policies.
Prosecutor Cavalcanti noted that, according to the Walk Free Foundation, Brazil had around 150,000 slaves in 2014. “Recent peak figures show that we now have 370,000. In other words, the number of other enslaved people has more than doubled,” he said. He said, explaining that the average number of rescues is just over 2,000 a year.
According to Cavalcanti, the government’s public policy schedule following the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff has helped low-income families and worsened poverty levels. As a result, the number of personnel willing to submit to situations of extreme precariousness has skyrocketed.
“We have noticed the stagnation of agrarian reform policies and a worsening of social inequalities and authoritarian relations of force. Coronalism returned here with much more force. Social coverage is more precarious, as labour legislation is more flexible and deregulated, as is social security. . We have noticed the intense uberization of labor relations, which has been further fostered through past administrations,” he said.
In the opinion of Luiz Felipe Brandão de Mello, secretary of Labor Inspection at the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the narrative of the past government – that “work is crucial, not just rights” – has intensified the lack of confidence in Brazil.
“There is a great diversity of points that make a contribution to this panorama. It’s amazing that we’re still talking about the hard work of slaves in Brazil in 2023. This is not the duty of a single institution, but a fear of the whole society. “, and lead to a wonderful mobilization,” he said.
With the support of a corporate organization in Brazil, InPacto is a component of the sector’s institutional responses to the problem. The institute is active in seeking answers for global production chains and the prevention of slave labor.
One of its tools is the InPacto vulnerability index, which allows legislators to assess the threat of forced labor in the country, so that employers can work to provide decent operating conditions in their facilities.
According to Ferro, “companies will be obliged to report on the inspection of their entire chain. They won’t be able to say, ‘We hire a third party; We have no responsibility. Saying “we didn’t know” will no longer be possible. Companies will have to be cautious in the future,” he said.
Agribusiness is the sector most affected in cases of forced labour. From 1995 to 2022, of the other 57,772 people rescued, 29% worked in livestock, 14% in sugarcane production and 7% in forestry production.
“We want a cultural transformation, especially in the way we think about production. [. . . ] As the law becomes stricter, both domestically and internationally, reputation is likely to play an even bigger role, so lagging corporations will be forced to catch later.
As for efforts to suppress slave labor, prosecutor Cavalcanti believes that “to some extent,” Brazil serves as an outside model. “We have key instruments, such as the Movel Group, with an organization in place to combat slave labor with a blacklist. “He recalled that, thanks to a recent court decision, the crime of forced labor in Brazil will expire.
The last revolutionary action opposed to slave labor implemented under former President Rousseff (2011-2016), after the constitutional reform that stipulates the expropriation of the lands of the guilty.
“We will have to keep in mind that the government did not interfere out of nowhere. These tools were created because Brazil was obligated through other nations to do something about it,” he said.
The slave blacklist is the registration of employers convicted by the Ministry of Labour of subjecting staff to slavery-like conditions. The names are blacklisted after a final administrative decision. The list is published every six months, with the last one being made public in October last year.
São Paulo Museum of Art inaugurates indigenous exhibitions
Mining has had ‘golden years’ for Bolsonaro, report says
Portalrondonia. com de Notícias de Rondônia e Região envie sua notícia para [email protected] ou pelo nosso whats (6nine) nine ninenine426406