Brazilian Federal Police rescued 56 people this Friday10 minors, under similar conditions slavery at two rice farms in the south of the country. A joint operation with labor prosecutors was carried out in Uruguaiana, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, on the border with Argentina, and at the end of February 207 more rural workers were rescued in the same conditions.
All of those rescued this Friday were male, and 10 were adolescents aged 14 to 17, according to a police statement. According to the information obtained, the workers there were no job guarantees and they were locals, cutting the rice by hand and they applied pesticides and poisons to crops without any protection There is no suitable equipment. One of the employers was arrested and Labor Justice took action so that the workers could receive the guarantees and compensations stipulated by the law.
On February 22, a joint operation of the Ministry of Public Labor and the Police rescued 207 people aged between 18 and 57 working in conditions similar to slavery at the grape harvest in the municipality of Bento Gonçalves. On the same Friday, the wineries of Aurora, Garibaldi and Salton, three of Brazil’s most important wineries, were fined 7 million reais ($1.3 million) for using these workers hired by a third company on their land. Most of the workers were black and came from the state of Bahia in Brazil’s poor northeast region.
The contracting company is Fênix Serviços Administrativos e Apoio à Gestão de Saúde, which provides services to the reviewed wineries, which are among the largest in Brazil. The Brazilian Export and Investments Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) has suspended it. Aurora, Garibaldi and Salton’s participation in trade fairs or international trade events “until investigations are concluded by the competent authorities” with the companies they do business with in the wine production chain.
The subcontractor company responsible for the contract did not participate in the contract. “I did not accept the accusations” will be presented by the prosecutor’s office and tried in court. For now, Justice has ordered a 3 million reai ($580,000) lien on company assets.