61 plantation workers freed from debt slavery

Authorities raided a sugarcane plantation in north-eastern Brazil and freed 61 workers found living in debt slavery, the government said today.

The workers were freed on February 12 at the Laginha plantation and sugar mill in Uniao das Palmares, where they were cutting cane, the Labour Ministry said on its website.

They were released from their contracts and the plantation was temporarily closed pending reforms.

The ministry said the labourers were forced to work exhausting hours without overtime pay and were housed in “degrading” conditions, on concrete bunk beds in windowless barracks where temperatures often exceeded 40C. They were also deprived of basic items such as bedding.

Debt slavery is common in the Amazon. Under the practice, labourers are lured to remote spots where they rack up debts to plantation owners who charge exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.

The Roman Catholic Church’s Land Pastoral group has estimated that some 25,000 Brazilians live in slavery-like conditions.