February 8, 2022

10:02

Ana Carolina Barbosa – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Approximately 42% of the workers rescued in a situation analogous to slavery in Brazil, in the last 27 years, were being explored in states of the Legal Amazon. The data are from the Information and Statistics Panel of the Brazilian Labor Inspection (Radar SIT), of the federal government. There were 24,342 people in the Amazon out of a total of 57,644 registered in the whole country during the analyzed period.

Of the 24,342, at least 265 were located between 2020 and 2021. Of these, 70.18%, or 186, were rescued in Pará, the state with the highest volume both in 2020 (76) and 2021 (110). In second place in the Amazonian ranking is Amazonas, with 23 rescues in the biennium, followed by Mato Grosso (21), Tocantins (20), Rondônia (8) and Roraima (7). Acre and Amapá do not present data.

People rescued in 27 years in the states of the Legal Amazon

• Pará: 13,359
• Mato Grosso: 6,190
• Tocantins: 3,012
• Rondônia: 936
• Amazonas: 474
• Acre: 236
• Roraima: 98
• Amapá: 37

Most cases happen in rural areas

The platform also shows that approximately 77.7% of the people rescued in the period, in Brazil, were found in a situation analogous to slavery in rural areas and rescued by Labor Inspection teams, the equivalent to 44,786 people. Another 12,858 were being exploited in urban areas.

In this last case, the profile includes, for example, cases of national repercussion, such as that of Madalena Gordiano, 46, a black woman rescued in 2021 by the Public Ministry of Labor after 38 years of exploitation in a house in Patos de Minas, Minas Gerais.

In the house where she lived since she was a child, she was forced to perform domestic services all day long, without receiving a salary. According to Madalena’s reports to the news teams, she was denied even personal hygiene items, which made her turn to neighbors. One of them ended up denouncing the case to the authorities. Madalena was also forced to marry an elderly relative of the family, who left her a pension as an inheritance, and whose money was only used by her employers. After the rescue, Madalena was taken into a support home for recovery and had her rights restored.

Also in Minas Gerais, in January of this year, a large operation to combat slave labor was carried out, with the rescue of 270 people. After the workers were released, they were compensated and were able to return to their home towns. Slave labor situations, especially in rural areas and ‘family homes’ are common in Brazil and have been constantly denounced, accompanied by the media. The Ministry of Labor makes ‘Disk 100’ available for denunciations.