Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Brazil (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee notes the Government’s report as well as the comments presented by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (now the International Trade Union Confederation – ITUC), which were transmitted to the Government on 17 October 2006.

Articles 1(1) and 2(1) of the Convention. Trafficking in persons. In its comments, the ICFTU refers to trafficking in persons, particularly women, for purposes of prostitution, sex tourism and pornography, primarily to Europe as the destination. In the majority of cases, women are offered well-paid jobs abroad as domestic workers, nannies, dancers, models, or prostitutes. They travel accompanied by the trafficker, who keeps their identity documents and, at the destination, these women are told that they have accumulated a debt for their travel, documentation, accommodation, food, and sometimes alcohol and drugs that they are forced to consume. They find themselves caught up in a spiral of debt and are constrained to pay it off by prostituting themselves. Some of them are locked up or subjected to verbal, physical and sexual violence. Trafficking of persons is an extremely organized activity, involving a multiplicity of actors, routes and supply networks, legal and illegal enterprises and with direct links to international organized crime networks and mafias.

The ICFTU also refers to trafficking of Bolivian workers destined to São Paulo for purposes of forced labour. In an irregular situation and unable to speak the language, Bolivian migrant workers are extremely dependent on their employer and considered all the more easy to exploit. The trade union confederation indicates that factory bosses employ intermediaries to go to Bolivia to recruit workers, and that these recruiters employ various methods, including adverts in newspapers and on the radio. Having arrived at their destination, the migrant workers live in cramped conditions and work in extremely harsh conditions, and many experience situations of forced labour. The traffickers retain their identity documents and threaten to report them to the police. The debt contracted by these workers for their transportation and other costs and other expenses can steadily mount with payments for food, accommodation and the tools they use.

To conclude, the ICFTU considers that section 231 of the Penal Code is inadequate since it only addresses trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation; that the national policy on combating trafficking in persons also lacks adequate measures for identifying, protecting and supporting the victims; that the institutions involved in combating trafficking in persons need to be strengthened; and that the basic needs of socially marginalized communities must be met in order to reduce the vulnerability to exploitation.

The Committee notes these observations and regrets that the Government has not replied to them. The Committee nevertheless notes from information available on the Internet sites of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Justice that the Government has taken certain measures to combat trafficking in persons. It notes in particular:

–      the carrying out of a national study on trafficking of women, children and adolescents for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation (PESTRAF) and the publication of a report on the findings in December 2002. As the first study on this issue, the report identified 241 national and international trafficking routes of children, adolescents, and women, thereby placing into evidence the gravity of the problem in Brazil;

–      the implementation of a pilot project on the prevention and fight against trafficking of human beings in four states by the Ministry of Justice, with support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes;

–      the adoption of Law No. 11.106 of 28 March 2005 which amended section 231 of the Penal Code making punishable with a penalty of three to eight years’ imprisonment the act of promoting, serving as an intermediary for, or facilitating the entry or exit of a person onto or from national territory for the exercise of prostitution. The law also inserts section 231-A, which criminalizes and punishes with the same penalty internal trafficking defined as the act of promoting, serving as an intermediary, or facilitating, within national territory, the recruitment, transport, transfer, shelter, or collection of a person who plans to engage in prostitution;

–      the integration into the multi-year plan 2004–07 of two activities under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, which are aimed at strengthening the capacities of professionals charged with supporting victims and carrying out investigative studies on the trafficking of persons to Brazil;

–      the adoption of a national policy on combating trafficking in persons and the establishment of an inter-ministerial working group having as its function the elaboration of a national plan to combat trafficking in persons (Decree No. 5.948 of 26 October 2006). Prior to its adoption, the draft national policy was submitted for public consultation at the site of the Ministry of Justice, and a seminar was organized at which civil society and national and international actors involved in the fight against trafficking in persons were able to discuss it.

The Committee hopes that in its next report the Government will provide detailed information on activities undertaken in the framework of the national policy on combating trafficking in persons, on the progress achieved and the difficulties encountered, as well as on the progress of the work of the working group with a view to the adoption of a national plan of action. Recalling that sections 231 and 231-A of the Penal Code only criminalize trafficking in persons for purposes of sexual exploitation, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the provisions used to punish trafficking in persons for purposes of exploitation of their labour. In this regard, please also provide information on the judicial procedures filed against persons who engage in trafficking in persons, as well as on measures taken to encourage victims to report them and to ensure the protection of the latter. Finally, the Committee hopes that the Government will indicate the measures taken or envisaged to sensitize the population about trafficking in persons, particularly those persons most vulnerable to this type of exploitation.