Face of Slave Labour Changing in Brazil

Face of Slave Labour Changing in Brazil
By Fabiola Ortiz


[font size=1]
A rural worker on a cassava plantation in Pesqueira, Pernambuco in northeast Brazil holds out his damaged hands,
testimony to the appalling slave labour conditions he was forced to work under. Credit: Alejandro Arigón/IPS [/font]

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 30 2014 (IPS) - The upcoming mega sporting events in Brazil are paving a new route for slave labour among those migrating from rural areas to the cities in search of work.

The dream of a good job draws many rural migrants from Brazil’s poorest regions, as well as neighbouring countries, to try their luck in big cities. But sometimes their dreams turn into nightmares.

Slave labour remains largely a rural phenomenon in Brazil, where it still occurs on cattle ranches, sugar cane plantations and charcoal farms in remote areas. But it has been growing more recently in the textile and garment industry as well.

The shift to urban areas has made it difficult to fight, said experts consulted by IPS.

Cícero Guedes survived several decades of work in slavery conditions, like thousands of other rural workers in Brazil who move around the country in search of work and fall victim to forced labour.

“I worked hungry many times, without anything to eat,” he told IPS some time ago during a meeting of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). “No one can work a whole day without eating a thing. My lunch was sucking on sugar cane; the suffering is marked on your face. I worked in plantations, sugar mills, factories, and the pay was next to nothing.”

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/face-slave-labour-changing-brazil/