Brazil conducts multiple rescue operations against slave‑like labour

In late July, Brazil’s Ministry of Labor and the Public Labor Prosecutor (MPT) carried out a series of enforcement actions that freed workers trapped in conditions described as analogous to slavery.

The largest operation took place in Cezarina, Goiás, where 55 people – recruited from Bahia and Minas Gerais with promises of up to R$ 10,000 a month – were rescued after spending 50 days on the employer’s payroll but working only ten days. The workers endured inadequate food, lack of potable water and delayed or minimal wages. Authorities provided bus tickets for their return to their home states and opened administrative proceedings that could place the employer on the country’s “dirty list” of slave‑labour violators.

Other actions included the rescue of a 69‑year‑old domestic worker in Nova Iguaçu after 52 years of unpaid service, two miners in Presidente Olegário, Minas Gerais, and nine construction workers in Maranguape, Ceará, who were returned to Maranhão after receiving severance and unpaid wages. All cases were investigated jointly by the Ministry of Labor, the MPT and local police, with penalties and civil actions planned for the offenders.