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Bill ignores debt slaves' plight in Brazil: activists

Human-rights activists fear Brazilian ranchers and farmers who turn poor workers into debt slaves could be made virtually immune from punishment because of a congressional amendment tacked onto a bill aimed at boosting the economy of Latin America's largest nation.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faces a deadline today on whether to sign, veto or change the bill approved a month ago by Congress.

Lula's labor minister recommended a veto for, but Brazil's first working class president has not indicated how he will act.

Debt slavery is common in the Amazon region of Brazil, where poor workers are lured to remote areas to clear jungle land and work as hired hands by farmers and loggers who charge them exorbitant prices for food and transportation, turning them into virtual slaves.

The Roman Catholic Church's Land Pastoral group estimates some 25,000 Brazilians live in slave-like conditions.

The government has managed to some degree to keep the problem in check through Labor Ministry audits of the ranchers and loggers.

The amendment would strip auditors of their power to investigate relationships between employers and employees.

Auditors currently can immediately fine and discipline individuals and companies when irregularities are found, but passage of the bill would eliminate that power, leaving only judges to decide whether a relation between employer and employee constitutes slavery.

Since legal cases typically take years to work their way through Brazilian courts, punishing ranchers will be much harder if Lula approves the amendment as written, said Jorge Souto Maior, a labor judge and law professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

The Labor Ministry has been monitoring farmers and ranchers with a group it calls the Mobile Verification Task Force.

Founded in 1995, the group says it has freed more than 21,000 workers from debt slave conditions at more than 1,600 farms across Brazil.

"This will not continue to happen if the law is sanctioned," said Luis Claudio Mattos of Catholic Relief Services in Brazil.

"The auditors' verification won't be as effective because the farmers won't be punished immediately, and it will take forever for the judicial system to take action," he said.

The amendment to the bill -- which also unifies two federal tax departments and eliminates bureaucratic business barriers -- was actually requested by Brazilian media organizations seeking more flexibility in the way they use freelancers.
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