More than 300 Brazilian companies busted for modern-day slavery - campaigners [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

More than 300 Brazilian companies busted for modern-day slavery - campaigners
| Mon Feb 15, 2016 12:43pm EST


BOGOTA, Feb 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Brazil's ministry of labour has fined 340 Brazilian companies for using slave labour, including forced labour and people working in degrading conditions for little or no pay in rural and urban areas, a leading anti-slavery group has said.

A "dirty list" published by the rights group Reporter Brazil this month revealed that 340 Brazilian companies from May 2013 to May 2015 employed people working in slave-like conditions, including in sweatshops producing clothes, in farms, cattle ranches, timber companies, construction and charcoal production.

Leonardo Sakamoto, head of Sao Paulo-based Reporter Brazil, said his organisation, which works to expose slave labour, used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the names of companies and individuals that were found to have slave labour by federal labour inspectors in Brazil.

"The companies were fined by the labour ministry and those enslaved were released," he said.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-slavery-idUSL8N15U3CD?rpc=401

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141349922