Brazil rescues 69 workers from slave‑like conditions in Bahia construction sites and mines

Coordinated inspections by Brazil's Ministry of Labor and the Federal Police freed 69 people who had been working under conditions comparable to modern slavery in the Bahia state. In Seabra, a construction site slated for a highway service point and restaurant housed 45 rescued workers in overcrowded shelters lacking basic sanitation, safety equipment and formal labor contracts, with some laboring up to 65 hours a week.

In nearby Novo Horizonte, 24 miners were liberated from illegal underground quartz and barite mines where they lived in makeshift canvas shacks, earned about R$120 a week, and faced hazards such as cave collapses and silica exposure. Both sites were shut down, the workers received severance payments totaling roughly R$578,000 and moral‑damage compensation, and were directed to special unemployment insurance for rescued laborers.