Rio de Janeiro - More than 1,100 workers held under slave-
like conditions in Brazil were freed in the country's largest
operation against forced labour in recent years, according to media
reports Tuesday.
Officers from the Brazilian Labour Ministry and the federal police
raided a sugar cane plantation used in the production of ethanol fuel
in the northern state of Para. Reports said it was the largest such
operation since the so-called razzia system - a fresh commitment by
the government to root out slavery - was introduced in 1995.
The company operating the estate in the town of Ulianopolis, 250
kilometres south of state capital Belem, produces some 40 million
litres of ethanol per year, reports said.
The Brazilian Labour Ministry has also paid out a total of 1.8
million real (940,000 dollars) to the affected workers as
compensation since the raid, which took place some time in late June-
early July.
The men and women freed were held in overcrowded warehouses in the
rainforest. The estate owner used a method frequent in Brazil - he
sold the workers clothes, work equipment, food and medicine at prices
well above their market value, so that they were ever more in debt
and ultimately became entirely dependent on their master.
The available drinking water was dirty and tasted like rust, the
Labour Ministry said. There were no sanitation facilities in the
plantation, and the working day went from 4 am to 5:30 pm.
In 2006, 3,308 men, women and children were freed from slave-like
working conditions throughout Brazil.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 25,000-
40,000 people are subjected to such forced labour in Brazil, where
slavery was officially abolished in 1888.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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