Slave labour in Brazil

Brazil, which has thousands of slave labourers especially in the farm sector, needs more money and political will if it is to succeed in abolishing the practice, a UN agency found yesterday.

Brazil launched a national plan in 2003 to end slave labour by 2006. The country has made progress in some areas and thousands of people have been freed, but Brazil fell short on many goals, the International Labor Organization said.

The ILO report could renew criticism from other leading farm exporters that Brazil's competitive strength is in part due to unfair labour practices.

The country estimated in 2004 that some 25,000 people were reduced to living and working in slave-like conditions anually. The ILO said Brazil's Labour Ministry estimates nearly 18,000 slave labourers were freed between 1995 and 2005, but said it was impossible to say how many might remain.