Brazil Police Arrest Forced Labor Suspects

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Police raided a poor settlement in central Brazil Thursday and arrested landowners suspected of environmental crimes and labor abuse in making charcoal from illegally felled timber.

BRASILIA, Brazil -- Police raided a poor settlement in central Brazil Thursday and arrested landowners suspected of environmental crimes and labor abuse in making charcoal from illegally felled timber.


The federal police unit destroyed illegal charcoal ovens as part of Operation Black Crystal, a raid on a settlement of formerly landless people living on government-appropriated land near Cristalina in central Goias state.


The timber came from protected areas and the suspects will be charged with environmental crimes, a police statement said. Police also suspected workers' rights were being abused.


In 2004, the government estimated there were about 25,000 people subjected to forced labor in Brazil, many in the Amazon region, where poor workers are used for rough tasks like harvesting lumber and making charcoal.


Such workers often lack proper housing and sanitation and can easily fall into wage slavery, or a state where they can easily fall into debt with their employers.


A federal police spokesman said it was too early to say how many people were arrested Thursday in Operation Black Crystal.


The settlement was part of a government agrarian reform program that expropriates land and gives it to poor landless people who may be farmers or unemployed urban workers.


Brazil is a continent-sized country supported by a farming economy but one percent of the population of 185 million owns almost half the land.


Source: Reuters


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