Brazilian authorities rescued 24 Venezuelan refugees in the country, some of whom were caring for newborns as young as a few days old, in conditions akin to slavery, official sources said Friday.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Labor, the group of migrants was exploited in construction activities for housing and warehouses in Rio do Sul, a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina.
The rescue operation’s coordinator, Joel Darcie, said the Venezuelans were working in degrading conditions and “in the most absolute informality”.
“They installed them in makeshift rooms, with no beds or bathrooms. They lived in a makeshift place for a week while they worked on the construction,” Darcie described.
The representative of the Brazilian government said that in one of those rooms they found “two 4-day-old babies, twins of one of the workers”.
The Venezuelans lived in the cities of Chapecó and Itapiranga and learned about the vacancy through a publication on a social network, “aimed exclusively” at citizens of that nationality.
The offer included a monthly salary of up to 3,000 reais (about 535 euros) for Venezuelan refugees in Brazil, as well as housing and food provided by the company.
Brazilian authorities transferred the workers to hotels in the region and forced the company to pay their labor rights, which amounted to 240,000 reais (42,900 euros).
Brazil rescued 2,575 workers last year in conditions similar to slavery, according to official data.
Source: DN
