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Area at the border of the Amazon forest in Para state, burned down to produce charcoal. The land is likely to then be used to grow soybeans or cattle, activities that are in fact the biggest users of slave labour. The Brazilian authorities are trying to assign responsability for slavery cases and illigal deforestation in such farms to the pig-iron producers, as the charcoal is made to be sold exclusively to these extremely profitable companies.
The government occasionally raids farms that have been accused of keeping workers under these conditions. Inspectors protected by heavily armed policemen storm the properties without notice. If confirmed, the workers are freed; their wages are calculated and paid by the farmers, who will then face the law.
But impunity and corruption has made several cases of slavery never be brought
to justice at all, powerful businessmen and politicians still benefit from
it and thousands of poor workers are being deprived of their basic rights.
Their families never know their whereabouts and they spend their lives locked
in cycles of debt-bondage and misery.