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[ Country-by-Country Reports ] BRAZIL (TIER 2)
[Extracted from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008] Brazil is a source
country for women and children trafficked within the country and
transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, as well
as a source country for men trafficked internally for forced labor. The
Brazilian Federal Police estimate that 250,000 children are exploited for
prostitution, although NGOs put the number as high as 500,000. Between 25,000
to 100,000 men are subjected to slave labor within the country. Approximately
half of the nearly 6,000 men freed from slave labor in 2007 were found
exploited on plantations growing sugar cane for the production of ethanol, a
growing trend. A large number of Brazilian women and girls are trafficked for
sexual exploitation to destinations in South America, the Caribbean, Western
Europe, Japan, the United States, and the Middle East. To a lesser extent,
Brazil is a destination for the trafficking of men, women, and children from
Bolivia, Peru, and the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) for forced
labor into factories in major urban areas of Brazil. Child sex tourism
remains a serious problem, particularly in the resort areas and coastal areas
of Brazil’s northeast, and mostly involves tourists from Europe and the
United States. The Government of
Brazil does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination
of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Over the
past year, the government significantly increased efforts to rescue victims
of slave labor through mobile inspection operations in the Amazon and remote
locations, and also increased efforts to provide greater services for
victims. At the same time, however, the government did not report any
criminal investigations, prosecutions, convictions, or punishments of forced
labor crimes and only limited investigations of sex trafficking crimes. A
lack of government resources and dedicated personnel impeded Brazil’s
ability to combat its trafficking problem, although the government committed
to allocate more funding to anti-trafficking efforts in its recently
instituted national work plan to combat trafficking in persons and forced
labor. Recommendations for Brazil: Enact federal
legislation to criminalize and sufficiently punish all severe forms of
trafficking in persons, including forced labor, consistent with the
requirements of the 2000 UN TIP Protocol; continue and increase efforts to
investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence trafficking offenders,
especially those who exploit victims for slave labor; commence investigations
and prosecutions of corrupt officials who are alleged to facilitate or
participate in human trafficking activity; increase cooperation with the
United States to investigate allegations of forced labor linked to U.S.
imports of Brazilian pig iron; improve victim assistance and protection,
especially for victims of slave labor who are vulnerable to being
re-trafficked; improve data collection for all trafficking crimes; and
dedicate more government resources for anti-trafficking activities. Prosecution Brazil continued to
lack a centralized system to collect, analyze, and report data on
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts throughout the country. Therefore,
no comprehensive data on trafficking investigations, prosecutions,
convictions, and sentences were available. Nevertheless, the government
appeared to sustain its efforts to investigate sex trafficking crimes. The
Federal Police in 2007 reported approximately 200 complaints relating to the
alleged sex trafficking of Brazilian women to Europe and seven ongoing
investigations into cases of alleged transnational sex trafficking. Brazilian
press reporting indicated that at least 59 suspected trafficking offenders
were arrested by Federal Police during the reporting period. The Federal
Highway Police, which is responsible for a substantial portion of
Brazil’s anti-trafficking law enforcement activity, continued to
conduct training for its officers on detecting trafficking victims and investigating
trafficking crimes. Brazilian and other Mercosul law enforcement officials
studied the feasibility of exchanging information of crossborder trafficking
investigations. The government did not
report any criminal investigations or prosecutions of forced labor crimes,
although 751 civil investigations are under way, and 890 cases have been
filed for prosecution in civil labor courts. Such actions typically result in
back pay and fines levied against landowners and other offenders –
penalties that are inadequate. A Supreme Court ruling of November 2006, which
requires that all criminal complaints of “slave labor” be heard
by a federal criminal court, appears to remain unimplemented. The Ministry of
Labor’s anti-slave labor mobile units increased their operations during
the year, as the unit’s labor inspectors freed victims, forced those
responsible for forced labor to pay often substantial amounts in fines and
restitution to the victims, and then moved on to others locations to inspect.
Mobile unit inspectors did not, however, seize evidence or attempt to
interview witnesses with the goal of developing a criminal investigation or
prosecution because inspectors and the labor court prosecutors who accompany
them have only civil jurisdiction. Because their exploiters are rarely
punished, many of the rescued victims are ultimately re-trafficked. The
Ministry of Labor’s “dirty list” which publicly identifies
individuals and corporate entities the government has determined to have been
responsible for slave labor, continued to provide a modicum of punishment to
those engaged in this serious crime, largely through public shame and the
barring of these entities’ access to loans from state financial
institutions. During the year, however, a number of individuals and corporate
entities were able to remove their names from the “dirty list”
through court action. Throughout the year, there were reports of government
officials’ complicity in sex trafficking or slave labor, particularly
with regards to police – directly or indirectly involved in sex
trafficking rings – notably in the Amazon and northern states.
Furthermore, numerous credible reports indicated that state police officials
were involved in the killing or intimidation of witnesses involved in
testifying against police officials in labor exploitation or forced labor
hearings. There were also numerous killings of rural labor activists and
labor union organizations, some of whom were active in fighting forced labor
practices; some of these killings reportedly occurred with the participation
or knowledge of state law enforcement officials. Protection During the year, the
Ministry of Labor’s mobile units identified and freed 5,963 victims of
forced labor through 114 operations targeting 203 properties. This is a
significant increase from 3,390 forced labor victims freed in 2006 through
103 operations targeting 186 properties. Approximately half of the victims
freed in 2007 were found on plantations growing sugar cane for Brazil’s
booming production and export of ethanol, a biofuels, marking a growing
trafficking phenomenon. In one operation alone, a Ministry of Labor mobile
unit found 1,108 slave labor victims on a sugar plantation during an
inspection in Pará state in July 2007. The Ministry of Labor awarded
slave labor victims with compensation totaling $5.4 million as a result of
these 2007 operations, funds which were derived from fines levied against the
landowners or employers identified during the operations. The government
encouraged victims of sex trafficking to participate in investigations and
prosecutions of trafficking, though often victims proved reluctant to serve
as a state witness due to fear of reprisals from traffickers and corrupt law
enforcement officials. The government did not, however, encourage victims of
forced labor to participate in criminal investigations or prosecutions,
although judges and prosecutors have begun to use victims’ testimony
recorded by NGOs. The government did not detain, fine, or otherwise penalize
identified victims of trafficking for unlawful acts committed as a direct
result of their being trafficked. Some victims of sex trafficking were
offered protection under a witness protection program on a limited basis,
though a lack of resources limited this program’s effectiveness. The
government did not provide foreign victims of trafficking with legal
alternatives to their removal to countries where they may face hardship or
retribution. Prevention |