Brasília - The Public Interest Defense Ministry for Labor (MPT) received a donation of equipment today from the International Labor Organization (ILO), giving a boost to its activities to combat slave-like labor. The material includes portable computers and printers, which will expedite the inspections carried out by the MPT as part of the operations of the mobile group to eliminate slave-like labor. According to the Solicitor-General for Labor, Sandra Lia Simón, the material is indispensable for MPT technicians to do their job.

The donation is part of a total of US$ 40 thousand in material offered by the ILO to the Mobile Inspection Group to Combat Slave-like Labor, in which the MPT participates. The coordinator of the ILO's Project to Combat Slave-like Labor, Patrícia Audi, explains that this donation is in acknowledgement of all the efforts made by the Ministry of Labor, the MPT, and the Brazilian State to combat slave-like labor during the nine years in which the mobile group has existed.

"Nowadays, Brazil is an international reference in the fight against slave-like labor. Not only on account of the creation of this mobile group, but also because of the measures that have been taken with respect to this issue," Audi points out. According to her, the ILO has been backing and encouraging the programs carried out in Brazil. "The organization earmarked US$ 1.7 million for the project initiated in April, 2002, to combat slave-like labor in Brazil," the ILO coordinator stated. "Countless activities are envisioned in this project, which acts in partnership with Brazilian society," she added.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Bianca Estrela
Translator: David Silberstein
08/10/2004