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The fight against slavery in Brazil
...
only since 1995 has Brazil been fighting the problem of modern slavery within its borders with genuine consequences for transgressors.
The key decision that year was to form a series of federal mobile inspection units under the control of the Ministry of Labor, capable of undertaking raids on businesses across Brazil when reports of the use of slave labor were received. In the first five years, 2,303 slaves were rescued, rising to about 5,000 a year by 2009.
The introduction of the units came 25 years after a bishop in the Amazon, Pedro Casaldáliga, began to campaign against modern slavery during Brazil’s dictatorship. Before then, there was little recognition of the continued existence of slave labor after its official abolition in 1888.
“Brazil abolished slavery more than a century ago but did not change its worker exploitation model,” said Luiz Camargo, the country’s chief labor prosecutor.
“We only changed the people who are exploited. Back in the 18th or 19th century, you had only black slaves, and today you have slaves of all colors,” he said.
http://projects.aljazeera.com/2015/07/slavery-brazil/slaves-fight-back.html