Slave workers freed from Brazilian plantation

Jul 3, 2007, 16:51 GMT

Rio de Janeiro - More than 1,100 workers held under slave- like conditions in Brazil were freed in the country's largest operation against forced labour in recent years, according to media reports Tuesday.

Officers from the Brazilian Labour Ministry and the federal police raided a sugar cane plantation used in the production of ethanol fuel in the northern state of Para. Reports said it was the largest such operation since the so-called razzia system - a fresh commitment by the government to root out slavery - was introduced in 1995.

The company operating the estate in the town of Ulianopolis, 250 kilometres south of state capital Belem, produces some 40 million litres of ethanol per year, reports said.

The Brazilian Labour Ministry has also paid out a total of 1.8 million real (940,000 dollars) to the affected workers as compensation since the raid, which took place some time in late June- early July.

The men and women freed were held in overcrowded warehouses in the rainforest. The estate owner used a method frequent in Brazil - he sold the workers clothes, work equipment, food and medicine at prices well above their market value, so that they were ever more in debt and ultimately became entirely dependent on their master.

The available drinking water was dirty and tasted like rust, the Labour Ministry said. There were no sanitation facilities in the plantation, and the working day went from 4 am to 5:30 pm.

In 2006, 3,308 men, women and children were freed from slave-like working conditions throughout Brazil.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 25,000- 40,000 people are subjected to such forced labour in Brazil, where slavery was officially abolished in 1888.