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Modern slavery Amazon it1524.jpg
Contemporary slavery, Amazon rainforest, Brazil. Tuerê farm; State: Pará. Typical event of "debt bondage": The immobilization of the workers until they can pay off debts, incurred through fraud. They were enticed into verbal contracts, and then loaded into trucks for a 12-hours-dangerous-trip. On arrival the attractive wage rates promised were reduced, and then forfeited in order to pay for food and working tools. Even worser, the workers did not have access to calculations of the charges chalked up against their names. Armed inspectors prevented them from escaping. Special Group for the Repression of Forced Labour (Groupo Especial de Repressão ao Trabalho Forçado) or GERTRAF, as it is commonly known, is made up of mobile groups that work in different regions of the country, investigating accusations of work conditions close to slavery on farms, charcoal works, plantations and sugar mills.  They are officials of the Ministry of Labour and they have support from the Federal Police. In this picture  officials of Brazil's Labor Ministry supported by the Federal Polices free the workers and explain them their rights. In the background, deforestation, the forest cleared by slaves.