Inspectors from the Slave Labour Eradication Division of the Labour Inspection Secretariat in Brazil have rescued 39 slaves from an illegal gold mine in municipality of Jacareacanga Pará State, in a raid staged on 26 October 2020. The workers were reportedly lured to the site with the promise of work, but then forced to borrow money from the mine's owners to purchase food and equipment at inflated prices, and prevented from leaving when they could not repay the loans, effectively becoming bonded labourers, something prohibited under Brazil's slavery laws. The mine was officially listed as a worker's cooperative, but officials became suspicious when it was noted that the 'cooperative' was headed by Raimunda Oliveira Nunes, who is on a black list of employers known to use slave labour. When the inspectors arrived at the site, they found workers living in open shacks without access to clean water, at a site where mining machinery estimated to be worth several million reals (several hundred thousand US dollars), implying that the site was a profitable concern.
Slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, but is still serious problem in Brazil, particularly in industries such as mining and logging, which often are often active in remote locations (sometimes without any legal right to do so), making them hard to police. As part of measures to combat this a 'dirty list' of employers known to be involved in the practice was introduced in 2004. This is separate to the various legal sanctions that can be taken against those involved in slavery, and provides authorities with a watch list of individuals thought to be worthy of particular scrutiny, as well as helping to prevent such individuals gaining access to credit to fund business activities.
Raimunda Oliveira Nunes was added to this list in 2018, when another mine site she owned, also in Pará State, was raided. On that site it was found that 'employees' were forced to buy all food, clothing, water, and equipment from the operation on credit, with all gold recovered being handed over to Nunes' company, and the value (decided by the creditor) of this subtracted from the debt; employees did not have access to the credit book, and were generally only told the extent of their debt if they tried to leave. Access to phones or the internet were forbidden, with anyone wishing to contact the outside world being forced to buy transport to a remote location where there was a radio, then buy access to the radio. Employees were even prevented from developing normal relationships, with male employees being charged for access to female employees.
Nunes was sentenced to five years imprisonment for her role in the operation of the mine raided in 2018, but has yet to begin this sentence as she has lodged an appeal. Labour authorities report that they are currently unable to determine her location. However, her name being on a list of suspect employers did lead to the investigation which uncovered the new mine site.
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