By IANS/EFE,
Rio de Janeiro : Brazilian authorities Wednesday rescued 52 farm workers who were being held in slave-like conditions on three ranches in the Amazon state of Para, the government said.
Four of the workers were minors – a 15-year-old girl who worked as a cook and boys aged 13, 14 and 16 who cut wood or worked in the fields, the labor ministry said in a statement.
Workers were living with their children in seven canvas tents that had been erected on the rural properties.
The ministry imposed fines totalling 168,900 reais ($97,630), which the ranch owners are to pay to the workers.
Brazilian authorities last year rescued 2,271 workers subjected to degrading conditions in 158 operations, meting out a total of 5.4 million reais ($3.1 million) in fines.
The government also maintains a “black list” of 294 companies that have been denounced for holding workers in slave-like conditions.
The list is publicly available and prevents those companies from applying for loans at public-sector banks.
Several industries and exporters’ and supermarket associations also use the list to crack down on the sale of products from companies that use slave labour.