Last year, 2,575 workers were rescued from conditions similar to slavery, a third more than in 2021. Of the total rescues in 2022, 35 were children and adolescents. The data are from the Department of Labor Inspection of the Ministry of Labor and Employment.
In all, 462 inspections were carried out, which resulted in more than R$ 8 million in salary and severance pay. As some actions are still in progress, this value may be corrected.
The Special Group for Mobile Inspection carried out a third of the actions and found work practices analogous to slavery in 17 states. Among the 20 states inspected, only Alagoas, Amazonas and Amapá did not register cases of contemporary slavery.
Minas Gerais was the state with the most actions, with more than a thousand workers rescued. The largest of them occurred in the municipality of Varjão de Minas, where 273 workers were found in degrading conditions in the activity of cutting sugarcane.
Unemployment insurance data show that nine out of ten victims were men, nearly a third were aged between 30 and 39, and more than half were from the Northeast. About 80% of the total rescued were black or brown.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment, 148 victims were migrants from other countries, two thirds of them from Paraguay. In all, the number of rescued foreigners doubled compared to 2021.
Among the main economic activities inspected using labor similar to that of slaves are: cultivation of sugar cane; charcoal production; cultivation of garlic, coffee, apples and soybeans; extraction of stones and wood; cattle breeding; construction; in restaurants and clothing manufacturing.
Denouncements of work analogous to slavery can be sent via the internet, to the site of the Ipe System.
