Brasília, 10/22/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The International Labor Organization says it estimates that there are over 25,000 people in slave-labor working conditions in Brazil. The number, besides being shocking in itself, has caused concern in the government and among NGOs that work in favor of dignity in the workplace and sufficient income for workers. As a result the federal government and the congress launched the National Campaign to Eradicate Slave Labor yesterday.

According to the coordinator at the ILO who deals with the problem there, Patricia Audi, contemporary slavery is " a subtle and perverse presence," in remote regions where thousands of Brazilians have their liberty curtailed. "The country needs to become aware of this problem and get angry about it," says Audi.

Extreme poverty is one of the main reasons workers accept slave labor type work. Most of them are men with little formal education who do not even have money to feed their families. They accept jobs far from home where they work hard for food. They are enlisted by middlemen known as "gatos" *(cats) who make false promises, saying they will earn good wages and have comfortable lodgings.

The reverse side of the problem is the impunity that employers enjoy. According to government lawyer, Luís Antônio Camargo de Melo, who deals with slave labor cases, few cases result in jail sentences. "This is not a feeling that there is impunity. There is effectively impunity, period. Land owners who have been accused of keeping workers in slave labor type situations, just do not get punished, they do not go to jail," says Melo.

So far this year, a total of some 4,000 workers have been liberated from slave labor type situations. Between 1995 and 2002, a total of 5,000 were liberated. The campaign that began yesterday will reinforce a nationwide plan to eliminate slave labor in Brazil (Plano Nacional de Erradicação do Trabalho Escravo) which began at the beginning of the year.

Most cases of slave type labor occur in the states of Pará, Tocantins, Bahia, Mato Grosso and Maranhão. (AB)