Combatting Human Trafficking
In Brazil today, 25,000 to 40,000 people are working in slave-like conditions, held against their will on isolated ranches, farms and mines. This is especially prevalent in the North of the country, where the lack of jobs and extremely poor living conditions make residents vulnerable to trafficking. Intermediaries known as gatos (cats), who visit villages to entice workers with promises of well-paid work on ranches and mining operations in remote areas far from home. The hopeful workers are transported under cover of darkness and plied with alcohol so will not be able to remember the way back. Once they arrive at the work site, they discover that they are not free to leave. Victims are forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions, with poor food and hygiene; they are paid just a pittance, if anything at all. Instead being able to earn the better life they hoped for, these hard-working people find themselves trapped in modern-day slavery.
Community members work together to learn how to recognize, avoid, and report slave labor recruitment in Tocatins state, Brazil.
How Do We Do This Project and What Are Our Accomplishments To Date?
CRS Brazil is working to eradicate slave labor through the regional program Trails to Liberty (Trilhas da Liberdade). Trails to Liberty operates in the Northern states of Maranhão, Para, Piaui, and Tocatins, areas where recruitment of workers into slavery is most prevalent. CRS aims to considerably reduce the recruitment of at-risk workers and the number of victims of slave labor.
The Trails to Liberty program is divided into three strategic objectives:
- Fostering initiatives to generate income and employment for recovered victims
- Psychological, social and legal support for victims and their families
- Raising public awareness and mobilizing the general public to campaign against the practice of slave labor.
Education and awareness are key. For instance, in Tocatins CRS partner Center for Human Rights of Araguaína (CDH) leads workshops educating communities about how to recognize and avoid slave recruitment. At-risk workers examine such issues as: how does recruitment occur? How can I recgonize and avoid the gatos? What are possible alternatives to accepting offers of work at distant locations? How can we combat slave labor?
CRS partner organization CDH (Center for Human Rights of Araguaína) leads a Trails to Liberty youth training workshop in Tocatins state, Brazil. November 2005.
CRS works in tandem with national campaigns to raise public awareness and to encourage victims and the families of victims to report abuses to local and federal authorities. In addition, it links government programs intended to eradicate slave labor in Brazil with local civil society and church organizations.
Trails to Liberty is supported by the U.S. Department of Labor and is being implemented through partnerships with various government and non-government organizations including Reporter Brasil, Cáritas, the International Labor Organization, and the Brazilian Ministry for Agrarian Development.
