Brazil Launches Virtual Campaign Against Human Trafficking

The success story of one of the Airline Ambassadors trainers, successfully identifying a trafficking situation in flight was an inspiration for this important initiative!

Brasília – The Labor Prosecutor’s Office (MPT) and partners launch, this Wednesday (1st), a national campaign against human trafficking. Actions are planned on social networks, spots and radio bulletins and online debates on the subject throughout the month of July. “Human trafficking is real. It is current. Unidentified situations are very common. The campaign wants society to understand what trafficking is, how to recognize it and report it ”, explains MPT’s national coordinator for the Eradication of Slave Labor, Labor Prosecutor Lys Sobral.

The Labor Prosecutor and coordinator of the Migration Working Group Cristiane Sbalqueiro defines human trafficking as the recruitment of people through threat, use of force, fraud, deception or abuse of some victim’s vulnerability. It usually involves reducing mobility or restricting the freedom to come and go and withdrawing the trafficked person from his or her home state or country of origin. “People drop everything in search of a seductive proposal, without any guarantees, to model in Japan or play football in Portugal, for example.

The campaign is carried out by MPT in partnership with the Brazilian Association for the Defense of Women, Children and Youth (Asbrad) and has the support of the United Nations (UN) – United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The activity marks the World Day to Combat Trafficking in Persons – 30 July.

Freedom in the Air – Among the MPT’s projects to combat human trafficking, there is the Freedom in the Air project, aimed at training aeronauts, airmen and airport workers. “It is essential to train the eyes of land officials and flight attendants to disseminate knowledge about human trafficking and slave labor. Forbes magazine reported that almost 60% of the crime is committed using air transport. An example of the need to address the issue in Brazil was the rescue of three teenagers, in 2019, at the Manaus airport. The girls were victims of sexual exploitation and were on their way to São Paulo, ”says the program manager, Labor Prosecutor, Andrea Gondim.

In 2020, the program – aimed at professionals in the airline industry to identify possible cases of human trafficking – underwent adaptations. “The ILO and the UN warn of the risk of an increase in human trafficking due to the high number of unemployment and the threat of a global recession due to the new coronavirus. In the pandemic, victims are also less likely to escape and find help. That is why the project reinvented itself. It has expanded its scope, so as not to be restricted to the airport space ”, highlights Andrea Gondim. Here is a highlight from the Campaign The Ticket

Here are Nancy Rivard’s remarks:

 

Webseries – In the webseries “20 Questions to Understand Human Trafficking in Brazil”, important topics will be addressed, among them: the connections between climate change and slave labor; the case of drug trafficking mules victims of human trafficking; the impact of easing labor laws; trafficking related to cybercrime; illegal adoption; faith as a control and exploration mechanism; xenophobia and criminalization of immigration and issues related to the challenges of protecting migrants and refugees in contexts of humanitarian emergencies.

The debates will take place between the 1st and the 30th of July, on Asbrad’s Youtube (LINK – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IANo1dBMvNY), at 19h, and retransmitted on the MPT channel on the same network (TVMPT , all together), at 9pm. Registrations can be made at www.asbrad.org.br/liberdadenoar. Certificates will be awarded to those who follow them live.

“We will seek to reflect the spirit of the campaign, launched by MPT, presenting real and current examples on human trafficking, guaranteeing respect for the place of speech of its victims. It will be an unmissable opportunity to generate quality knowledge and social mobilization, through an action ‘puncture bubble’, which will take information to parts of society, who, little or nothing, heard about this terrible violation of human rights “, emphasizes the president of Asbrad, Dalila Figueiredo.

The debates will include, among others, professors Ricardo Rezende Figueira, from UFRJ, and Karine de Souza, from UFSCA; the journalist Leonardo Sakamoto; pastor Henrique Vieira, actress Dira Paes and philosopher Lucia Helena Galvão. The webseries will include representatives from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), the Public Defender’s Office (DPU), the Undersecretary for Labor Inspection (SIT), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Federal Police (PF), the Highway Police Federal (PRF), Ministry of Justice and Public Security, Conectas Human Rights, Greenpeace, GPTEC (Contemporary Slave Labor Research Group), Aprosmig, Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania (ITTC), Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Childhood , Human Rights Movement (MHud), Resama, The Exodus Road,

Underreported cases – In 2019 and 2018, 184 Brazilians were uprooted from the country due to human trafficking – 30 of them, equivalent to 16%, were children and adolescents. The data are from the Ministry of Justice. It is worth remembering that the cases are underreported. “Brazil is still experiencing a scenario of recognition of crime. Once the problem is identified, its modalities and having fought it, we will have the true dimension of human trafficking and this fight will acquire the strength it needs ”, points out Lys Sobral.

From 2014 to 2018 (last survey released), the Public Ministry of Labor registered 1,260 complaints of enticement and trafficking in workers, signed almost 334 terms of conduct adjustment (TAcs) and filed 136 actions, according to data from the MPT Gaia system. The institution works on this issue with preventive and welcoming actions for victims, especially in cases of human trafficking involving work analogous to slavery and sexual exploitation.

Denunciations against crime must be made through Dial 100 and Dial 180, from the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. Cases can also be reported to the MPT, through the website www.mpt.mp.br or through the MPT Pardal application (available free for Android and iOs).

Legislation – Brazil ratified the Palermo Protocol, through Decree No. 5,017 / 2004. The protocol is an international legal instrument that deals with trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

The country also sanctioned Law 13.344 / 2016, whose text includes in the Penal Code the crime of human trafficking, typified by the actions of agency, recruiting, transporting, buying or hosting a person through threat, violence, fraud or abuse, with the purpose of removing organs, tissues or body parts, subjecting them to conditions similar to slavery, illegal adoption and / or sexual exploitation.

“The punishments provided for in the current legislation consist of a penalty of four to eight years in prison, in addition to the payment of a fine. The penalty can also be increased from 1/3 to half if the crime is committed by a civil servant or against children, adolescents and the elderly and in situations where the victim is removed from national territory ”, explains the lawyer, specialist in Criminal Law, Thamara Medeiros.

See remarks from Nancy Rivard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_TbapwHipU&t=16s