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TO AMEMBASSY BRASILIA IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060500 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG BR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. STATE 59732 
     ¶B. STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Brazil of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent 
release.  The text of the TIP Report country narrative is 
provided, both for use in informing the Government of Brazil 
and in any local media release by Post's public affairs 
section on June 16 or thereafter.  Drawing on information 
provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide the host 
government with the text of the TIP Report narrative no 
earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, 
EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 for 
SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, however, that any public 
release of the Report's information should not/not precede 
the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than OOB local time Monday June 
15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local time on 
Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform the 
appropriate official in the Government of Brazil of the June 
16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points in 
para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of the 
country narrative provided in para 8.  For countries where 
the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it is 
particularly important to advise governments prior to the 
Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Brazil,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
BRAZIL (TIER 2) 
-------------------------------- 
 
Brazil is a source country for men, women, girls, and boys 
trafficked within the country and transnationally for the 
purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, as well as a 
source country for men and boys trafficked internally for 
forced labor. The Brazilian Federal Police estimate that 
250,000 to 400,000 children are exploited in domestic 
prostitution, in resort and tourist areas, along highways, 
and in Amazonian mining brothels.  According to UNODC, sex 
trafficking of Brazilian women occurs in every Brazilian 
state and the federal district.  A large number of Brazilian 
women and children, many from the state of Goias, are 
trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, 
typically to Spain, Italy, Portugal, and The Netherlands. 
Brazilian women and children also are trafficked for 
commercial sexual exploitation to neighboring countries such 
as Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Venezuela, and Paraguay. 
More than 25,000 Brazilian men are subjected to slave labor 
within the country, typically on cattle ranches, sugar-cane 
plantations, logging and mining camps, and large farms 
producing corn, cotton, soy, and charcoal for pig iron.  Some 
boys have been identified as slave laborers in cattle 
ranching, mining, and the production of charcoal for pig 
iron.  Slave labor victims are commonly lured with promises 
of good pay by local recruiters ) known as gatos ) in rural 
northeastern states to interior locations.  A growing trend 
documented in an extensive NGO study released in early 2009 
shows that approximately half of the more than 5,000 men 
freed from slave labor last year were found exploited on 
plantations growing sugar cane for the production of ethanol, 
electricity, and food.  Moreover, slave laborers are 
increasingly being rescued from sugar-alcohol plantations, 
cattle ranches, and other sectors in states where 
agricultural borders are expanding into the Amazon forest and 
other new areas such as the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, and 
Pantanal.  Domestic child servitude, particularly involving 
teenage girls, also was a problem in the country.  To a 
lesser extent, Brazil is a destination for the trafficking of 
men, women, and children from Bolivia and Paraguay for forced 
labor in garment factories and textile sweatshops in 
metropolitan centers such as Sao Paulo. Child sex tourism 
remains a serious problem, particularly in resort and coastal 
areas in Brazil,s northeast.  Child sex tourists typically 
arrive from Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United 
States.  In a newer trend, some arranged fishing expeditions 
to the Amazon were organized for the purpose of child sex 
tourism for European and American exploiters. 
 
The Government of Brazil does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  Last 
year the government sustained strong efforts to rescue 
victims of slave labor through mobile inspection operations 
in the Amazon and other remote locations, and improved 
coordination of law enforcement efforts to prosecute and 
punish traffickers for forced labor and sex trafficking 
crimes. However, government-provided shelter services and 
protections for some trafficking victims, particularly adult 
males and undocumented foreign victims, remained inadequate. 
Brazilian officials recognize human trafficking as a serious 
problem; the government,s response has been strong but 
insufficient to eradicate the phenomenon, especially in light 
of the large number of victims present in the country, in 
addition to the many Brazilians trafficked overseas. 
 
Recommendations for Brazil:  Increase efforts to investigate 
and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and sentence 
trafficking offenders, including public officials alleged to 
facilitate trafficking activity; continue to improve 
coordination on criminal slave labor cases between labor 
officials and federal prosecutors to hold exploiters 
accountable; continue to improve victim assistance and 
protection, especially for victims of slave labor who are 
vulnerable to being re-trafficked; consider increasing 
penalties for fraudulent recruiting crimes to more 
effectively target and punish unscrupulous recruiters of 
forced labor; and improve data collection. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Brazilian government improved law enforcement efforts to 
confront human trafficking crimes during the past year. 
Brazilian laws prohibit most forms of trafficking in persons. 
 Sections 231 and 231-A of the Brazilian penal code prohibit 
promoting or facilitating prostitution inside or outside of 
the country, prescribing penalties of three to eight years, 
imprisonment; sentences may be increased up to 12 years when 
violence, threats, or fraud are used.  The above penalties 
are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those 
prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.  Labor 
trafficking is criminalized pursuant to Section 149 of the 
penal code, which prohibits trabalho escravo (&slave 
labor8) -- or reducing a person to a condition analogous to 
slavery -- including by means of debt bondage, prescribing a 
sufficiently stringent penalty of two to eight years, 
imprisonment.  However, Brazilian law may not adequately 
criminalize other means of non-physical coercion or fraud 
used to subject workers to forced labor, such as threatening 
foreign migrants with deportation unless they continued to 
work.  Articles 206 and 207 prohibit the fraudulent 
recruitment or enticement of workers, internally or 
internationally, prescribing penalties of one to three 
years, imprisonment.  A 2006 presidential decree included a 
stated goal to amend Brazilian anti-trafficking laws to 
achieve parity between penalties applied to sex trafficking 
and forced labor crimes; such amendments remain unrealized. 
 
Comprehensive nationwide data on anti-trafficking 
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences are 
difficult to obtain.  However, partial-year statistics for 
2008 reported by the Federal Police indicate authorities 
opened 55 international sex trafficking investigations, filed 
21 indictments and arrested 50 suspects.  An additional two 
investigations and indictments were filed for internal sex 
trafficking crimes.  Transnational cases investigated last 
year include trafficking of Brazilian women to Italy, Spain, 
Portugal, and Switzerland, in addition to trafficking of 
Paraguayan women to Brazil.  Since March 2008, 22 defendants 
were convicted on sex trafficking charges, with sentences 
ranging from 14 months, to more than 13 years, 
imprisonment.  Such results represent an increase when 
compared to seven sex trafficking convictions and two 
sentences achieved in 2007. 
 
The government improved efforts to prosecute forced labor 
crimes last year, opening 64 federal investigations under 
Article 149.  In March 2009, a federal judge in Par state 
convicted and sentenced 22 defendants on slave labor charges, 
imposing sentences ranging from three to 10 years, 
imprisonment, in addition to fines.  The court dismissed 
charges against 19 defendants, acquitted six defendants, and 
convicted an additional six defendants of lesser crimes.  In 
a separate case in May 2008, a federal court in Maranhao 
sentenced a defendant to 11 years, imprisonment for reducing 
victims to slavery-like conditions; the defendant also was 
ordered to pay substantial amounts in owed wages to workers. 
These cases appear to be the first applications of a 2006 
Supreme Court ruling, which required that all slave-labor 
complaints be heard in federal courts only, instead of in 
both federal and state courts as was the case previously. 
The Ministry of Labor,s anti-slave labor mobile units 
increased the number of rescue operations conducted last 
year; the unit,s labor inspectors continued to free victims, 
and require those responsible to pay fines and restitution to 
victims.   In the past, mobile unit inspectors did not 
typically seize physical evidence or attempt to interview 
witnesses with the goal of developing a criminal 
investigation or prosecution; labor inspectors and labor 
prosecutors only have civil jurisdiction, and their 
anti-trafficking efforts were not coordinated with public 
ministry prosecutors, who initiate criminal cases in federal 
court.   Federal interagency coordination and information 
exchange on anti-trafficking cases remained weak last year; 
achieving effective coordination among differing federal, 
state, and municipal authorities was considered more 
challenging. 
 
The Ministry of Labor,s &dirty list,8 which publicly 
identifies individuals and corporate entities the government 
has determined to have been responsible for slave labor, 
continued to provide civil punishment to those engaged in 
this serious crime, with the amount of monetary fines 
increasing along with violators being denied access to 
publicly funded credit sources.  During the year, however, a 
number of individuals and corporate entities were able to 
avoid opprobrium by suing to remove their names from the 
&dirty list8 or reincorporating under a different name. 
Although the government opened no formal investigations or 
prosecutions of trafficking-related complicity during the 
past year, credible NGO reporting indicated serious official 
involvement with such activity at the local level, alleging 
that police turned a blind eye to child prostitution and 
potential human trafficking activity in commercial sex sites. 
 Past allegations have involved elected officials, as was the 
case with two aldermen from Par alleged to be involved with 
a child prostitution network.  Other reporting indicates that 
state police officials were involved in the killing or 
intimidation of witnesses involved in testifying against 
police officials in labor exploitation or forced labor 
hearings.  Killings and intimidation of rural labor activists 
and labor union organizers continued, some of whom were 
active in fighting forced labor practices; some of these 
killings reportedly occurred with the participation or 
knowledge of state law enforcement officials.  In one 
incident in February 2008, farmers in Mato Grosso, supported 
by local military police, fired shots on an anti-slave labor 
mobile inspection team.  A few Brazilian legislators have 
sought to interfere with the operation of the labor 
inspection teams in the past. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Brazilian government sustained efforts to provide 
trafficking victims with services during the year.  The 
Ministry of Social Development provided generalized shelter, 
counseling, and medical aid to adult and child victims of sex 
trafficking, along with other victims of sexual violence and 
exploitation.  The government also provided some funding to 
NGOs to furnish additional victim services.  The federal 
Ministry of Justice, with assistance from UNODC, funded 
victim assistance centers in conjunction with state 
governments in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goias, and Cearas. 
In 2008, an assistance center was opened in Belem, capital of 
Par state, to provide care and services to victims 
trafficked to and from Suriname.  A national hotline for 
reporting incidents of child sexual abuse and exploitation, 
which includes reports of child sex trafficking and 
commercial sex exploitation, continued to register calls in 
¶2008.  Brazilian police continued to refer child sex 
trafficking victims to government-run shelters for care, 
though they did not utilize formal procedures to identify 
trafficking victims among other vulnerable populations, such 
as prostituted adult women in brothels.   Labor inspectors 
and police officers who were members of the Ministry of 
Labor,s anti-slave labor mobile units employed procedures to 
identify victims of forced labor.  However, slave labor 
victims, typically adult Brazilian men, were not eligible for 
government-provided shelter assistance, though unemployment 
benefits, job training, and travel assistance were available. 
  Short- or long-term government-provided shelter assistance 
was provided to women and children victims of trafficking, 
domestic violence, and other crimes, though some NGOs 
provided such aid to male victims.  During the year, the 
Ministry of Labor,s mobile units identified and freed 5,016 
victims of slave labor through 154 operations targeting 290 
properties.  Such results compare with 5,963 victims of 
forced labor freed through 114 operations targeting 203 
properties in 2007.  In a continuing and growing trend 
documented by an extensive NGO study released in January 
2009, approximately half of the victims freed in 2008 were 
found on plantations growing sugar cane for Brazil,s 
expanding production and export of ethanol, a biofuel, in 
addition to production of sugar cane for food use and 
electricity.  In just 19 operations, mobile labor units 
rescued 2,553 victims from forced labor on sugar plantations, 
where workers can be subjected to high daily production and 
cutting quotas.  However, government officials and 
researchers also found that while sugar cane production 
involves large numbers of workers, slave labor on Brazilian 
cattle ranches involves a higher degree of human 
exploitation, particularly in land- and forest-clearing 
activities.  Last year, mobile inspection teams freed 1,026 
slave workers from cattle ranches in 85 operations, marking 
it as the sector with the second highest number of victims 
freed from slave labor in Brazil.  The Ministry of Labor 
awarded all slave labor victims a total of $3.6 million in 
compensation as a result of these 2008 operations, funds 
which were derived from fines levied against the landowners 
or employers identified during the operations.  However, due 
to lack of effective prosecutions of recruiters of slave 
labor, some rescued victims have been re-trafficked, 
according to NGOs. 
 
The government encouraged sex trafficking victims to 
participate in investigations and prosecutions of 
trafficking, though victims often were reluctant to testify 
due to fear of reprisals from traffickers and corrupt law 
enforcement officials.  The government did not generally 
encourage victims of forced labor to participate in criminal 
investigations or prosecutions.  Some victims of sex 
trafficking were offered short-term protection under a 
witness protection program, which was generally regarded as 
lacking resources.   The government did not detain, fine, or 
otherwise penalize identified victims of trafficking for 
unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being 
trafficked.  However, the government does not provide foreign 
trafficking victims with legal alternatives to removal to 
countries where they may face hardship or retribution.  Law 
enforcement personnel noted that undocumented foreign victims 
were often deported before they could assist with 
prosecutions against their traffickers. 
 
Prevention 
----------- 
The Brazilian government increased efforts to prevent human 
trafficking last year. A national plan of action on human 
trafficking, which was released in early 2008, continued to 
be implemented.  In particular, the Ministry of Justice named 
the first six winners of an annual cash prize for best 
anti-trafficking essays written by college and graduate 
students.  Federal authorities generally maintained good 
cooperation with international organizations and NGOs on 
anti-trafficking activities.  The Ministry of Tourism 
continued its public radio and television campaign of &Quem 
ama, protege8 (he who loves, protects) aimed at addressing 
child sexual exploitation in the tourism sector, and produced 
broadcast versions in several languages. The government took 
measures to reduce demand for commercial sex acts by 
conducting campaigns against the commercial sexual 
exploitation of minors along highways and during the 2009 
Carnival holiday period.  The Brazilian military uses the 
U.N. Peacekeeping Office,s anti-trafficking and forced labor 
training modules to train its troops for deployment to 
international peacekeeping missions. 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion.8 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was Brazil again given a ranking of Tier 2? 
 
A: The Government of Brazil does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  Last 
year the government sustained strong efforts to rescue 
victims of slave labor through mobile inspection operations 
in the Amazon and other remote locations, and improved 
coordination of law enforcement efforts to prosecute and 
punish traffickers for forced labor and sex trafficking 
crimes.  However, government-provided shelter services and 
protections for some trafficking victims, particularly adult 
males and undocumented foreign victims, remained inadequate. 
Brazilian officials recognize human trafficking as a serious 
problem; the government,s response has been strong but 
insufficient to eradicate the phenomenon, especially in light 
of the large number of victims present in the country, in 
addition to the many Brazilians trafficked overseas. 
 
Q2: What is the nature of Brazil,s trafficking problem? 
 
A: Brazil is a source country for men, women, girls, and boys 
trafficked within the country and transnationally for the 
purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, as well as a 
source country for men and boys trafficked internally for 
forced labor. The Brazilian Federal Police estimate that 
250,000 to 400,000 children are exploited in domestic 
prostitution, in resort and tourist areas, along highways, 
and in Amazonian mining brothels.  According to UNODC, sex 
trafficking of Brazilian women occurs in every Brazilian 
state and the federal district.  A large number of Brazilian 
women and children, many from the state of Goias, are 
trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, 
typically to Spain, Italy, Portugal, and The Netherlands. 
Brazilian women and children also are trafficked for 
commercial sexual exploitation to neighboring countries such 
as Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Venezuela, and Paraguay. 
More than 25,000 Brazilian men are subjected to slave labor 
within the country, typically on cattle ranches, sugar-cane 
plantations, logging and mining camps, and large farms 
producing corn, cotton, soy, and charcoal for pig iron.  Some 
boys have been identified as slave laborers in cattle 
ranching, mining, and the production of charcoal for pig 
iron.  Slave labor victims are commonly lured with promises 
of good pay by local recruiters ) known as gatos ) in rural 
northeastern states to interior locations.  A growing trend 
documented in an extensive NGO study released in early 2009 
shows that approximately half of the more than 5,000 men 
freed from slave labor last year were found exploited on 
plantations growing sugar cane for the production of ethanol, 
electricity, and food.  Moreover, slave laborers are 
increasingly being rescued from sugar-alcohol plantations, 
cattle ranches, and other sectors in states where 
agricultural borders are expanding into the Amazon forest and 
other new areas such as the Cerrado, the Atlantic Forest, and 
Pantanal.  Domestic child servitude, particularly involving 
teenage girls, also was a problem in the country.  To a 
lesser extent, Brazil is a destination for the trafficking of 
men, women, and children from Bolivia and Paraguay for forced 
labor in garment factories and textile sweatshops in 
metropolitan centers such as Sao Paulo. Child sex tourism 
remains a serious problem, particularly in resort and coastal 
areas in Brazil,s northeast.  Child sex tourists typically 
arrive from Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United 
States.  In a newer trend, some arranged fishing expeditions 
to the Amazon were organized for the purpose of child sex 
tourism for European and American exploiters. 
 
Q3: According to recent TIP Reports, forced labor seems to be 
a problem in Brazil.  What, if anything, has Brazil done to 
respond to this concern? 
 
A: During the year, the Ministry of Labor,s mobile units 
identified and freed 5,016 victims of forced labor through 
154 operations targeting 290 properties.  The Ministry of 
Labor awarded slave labor victims with compensation totaling 
$3.6 million as a result of these 2008 operations, funds 
which were derived from fines levied against the landowners 
or employers identified during the operations.  Victims also 
were provided with immediate medical care and counseling. 
However, the USG has concerns that some of these victims may 
be re-trafficked due to inadequate reintegration assistance 
and lack of economic opportunity.  In addition, approximately 
half of the victims freed in 2008 were found on plantations 
growing sugar cane for Brazil,s expanding production and 
export of ethanol, a biofuel, in addition to production of 
sugar cane for food use and electricity.  In just 19 
operations, mobile labor units rescued 2,553 victims from 
forced labor on sugar plantations, where workers can be 
subjected to high daily production and cutting quotas.  Last 
year the government improved efforts to prosecute forced 
labor crimes, opening 64 federal investigations under 
Brazilian law.  In March 2009, a federal judge in Par state 
convicted and sentenced 22 defendants on slave labor charges, 
imposing sentences ranging from three to ten years, 
imprisonment, in addition to fines.  In a separate case in 
May 2008, a federal court in Maranhao sentenced a defendant 
to 11 years, imprisonment for reducing victims to 
slavery-like conditions; the defendant also was ordered to 
pay substantial amounts in owed wages to workers.  These 
cases appear to be the first applications of a 2006 Supreme 
Court ruling, which required that all slave-labor complaints 
be heard in federal courts only, instead of in both federal 
and state courts as was the case previously.  The Ministry of 
Labor,s &dirty list8 which publicly identifies individuals 
and corporate entities the government has determined to have 
been responsible for slave labor, continued to provide 
non-jail punishment to those engaged in this serious crime, 
largely through public shame and the barring of these 
entities, access to loans from state financial institutions. 
 A number of individuals and corporate entities, however, 
were able to remove their names from the &dirty list8 
through court action or reincorporating under a different 
name. 
 
Q4: How can Brazil improve its anti-trafficking efforts? 
 
A: To advance its efforts to combat human trafficking, the 
Government of Brazil could:  increase efforts to investigate 
and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and sentence 
trafficking offenders, including public officials alleged to 
facilitate trafficking activity; continue to improve 
coordination on criminal slave labor cases between labor 
officials and federal prosecutors to hold exploiters 
accountable; continue to improve victim assistance and 
protection, especially for victims of slave labor who are 
vulnerable to being re-trafficked; consider increasing 
penalties for fraudulent recruiting crimes to more 
effectively target and punish unscrupulous recruiters of 
forced labor; and improve data collection. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON