1,000 laborers at plantation rescued
Brazilian authorities said they raided an Amazon plantation where more than 1,000 laborers were found working 13-hour days in horrendous conditions cutting sugar cane for ethanol production.
Authorities said preliminary findings by investigators indicated it was Brazil’s biggest raid against debt slavery, a common practice in the Amazon.
Under the practice, poor laborers are lured to remote spots where they rack up debts to plantation owners charging exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.
The plantation’s owner, the biggest ethanol producer in the northern state of Para, denied the allegations.
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