Ten of those rescued, who worked on rice plantations, were minors
The Brazilian Federal Police rescued 56 people this Friday10 of them minors, who were under conditions analogous to slavery in two rice farms in the south of the country. The joint operation with labor prosecutors was carried out in Uruguaiana, a city on the border with Argentina and located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the same city where another 207 rural workers were rescued in the same conditions at the end of February.
Those rescued this Friday, according to a police statement, were all male and 10 were adolescents between 14 and 17 years of age. According to the information, the workers who they had no job guarantees and they were natives of the region, they did the manual cutting of rice and they applied pesticides and poisons to the crops without any protection No proper equipment. One of the employers was arrested and the Labor Justice entered a process so that the workers receive the guarantees and compensation stipulated by law.
On February 22, a joint operation of the Public Ministry of Labor and the Police rescued 207 people between the ages of 18 and 57 who worked in the grape harvest in conditions analogous to slavery, in the municipality of Bento Gonçalves. This same Friday, the Aurora, Garibaldi and Salton wineries, three of the most important in Brazil, were sentenced to pay a fine of 7 million reais (1.3 million dollars) for using these workers hired by a company on their land. third company. Most of the employees were black and came from the state of Bahia, in the impoverished northeast region of Brazil.
The company responsible for the contracts is Fênix Serviços Administrativos e Apoio à Gestão de Saúde” which in turn provided services to the investigated wineries, which are among the largest in Brazil. The Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments (ApexBrasil) suspended the participation of Aurora, Garibaldi and Salton in fairs or international trade events “until the investigations by the competent authorities are concluded.” companies with which they do business in the wine production chain.
The outsourced company responsible for contracting did not join the agreement, which “did not acknowledge the accusations” presented by the Prosecutor’s Office and will face a trial in court. For the moment, the Justice has already ordered the seizure of 3 million reais (580,000 dollars) in company assets.