In this Thursday (03), the deputies who attended the meeting of the Mixed Parliament Front for the Slave Labor Eradication and the Brazilian Front for the Slave Labor Eradication want that the Slave Labor PEC (PEC 438/01) enters in the Chamber agenda. Some parliament members have suggested that, if necessary, the president Dilma Rousseff shall come to the Congress to defend the cause.

The deputy Domingos Dutra said he believes the members of the parliament are going to make efforts to discuss the proposal. He affirmed that, although the PEC is not the "magical solution" to fight the slave labor, it is a legal instrument that will allow punishing with land expropriation who practices the slave labor.

“To move forward, it is necessary to convince the Board of Directors and the Leaders College to put the issue in the agenda and remove the blockage placed by the rural landowners’ members of the Congress, which impedes the progress of the subject”, said Domingos Dutra.

Also in the meeting, the representative of the Labor International Organization (OIT) Luiz Machado highlighted that, although Brazil is internationally recognized by its effort in freeing enslaved workers, there will only be progress in these actions after the approval of the PEC against Slave Labor.

40 thousand freed

The efforts to fight the slave labor in the country have resulted in the freedom of 40 thousand workers in the past 16 years, according to numbers presented in the audience by the non-governmental organization Repórter Brasil.

In the meeting, the NGO representative Leonardo Sakamoto, has informed that, among the rescued between 2003 and 2009, 28% were from Maranhão and between 60% and 70% were illiterate or functional illiterate.

In case of slave labor in rural area, 95% of the rescued are men and 83% are between 18 and 40 years old. The average time to serve it was four months.

CPI Creation

The deputy Cláudio Puty affirmed that has suggested to the leadership of the party the installation of a parliamentary inquiry commission (CPI) to investigate the practice of slave labor in the country. He affirmed that, in Pará, the attempt to confront the workers enslavement has clashed in the lack of conditions to inspect such a large state.

The proposal of creating the CPI was praised by the ex-senator José Nery, ex-president of the Mixed Parliament Front for the Slave Labor Eradication. “This is going to be an essential step to make this fight visible; thus, to make the measures irreversible", he stated. He also asked the recomposition of the front, that currently has 93 deputies and 20 senators.