Broken Dreams. “It seems we are talking about XIX° century. This is real slavery, even though there’s no distinction between races: there are blacks, whites, indigenous. There is one common feature: they are all very poor”-told Luis Machado, an Oit member. The slave recruiters companies lend them some money to cover the journey and  to pay some tools to work. But afterwards, they are not paid for their job  and so they never became able to extinguish their debts and leave. Most of them are employed in Amazonia’s deforestation. They live in impassable areas, where is more difficult for the Government to find them.

People that manage to runaway go to missionaries that denounce slave traders to the authorities. According to Machado, slaves trust missionaries rather than policemen.

 

In fact, some local policemen have brought the runaways back to their slave traders, after beating and threating them. This is also the reason why authorities decided to create a specialized squad which deals with fighting this plague. When slaves regain freedom have a double choice: go back home or look for a legal job in the same area. Nevertheless, the aid they receive from the Government for three months, according to the Human Rights Defence Associations is not enough to survive and start a new life. The slave recruiters companies are immediately compelled to pay a fee that can even exceed 350 thousands Euro and then are brought to administrative and penal trial. During last year 160  fazendas and companies have been denounced and from 2004 the slave-traders names are made public.