No country exports more coffee than Brazil. But on the plantations, the workers are often exploited, and they often live under slave-like conditions. The causes go back deep into the country’s history.
It’s a backbreaking job. With bare hands, the ripe coffee cherries are brushed against branches of the bushes. Iran does not wear gloves. Fingers, pads, backs of the hands show scars and injuries. Iran says he has to pay for the tools and aids he is provided with.
From day one he gets caught in a spiral of debt. His employer demands money for transport, food, sleeping, boots that protect against snake bites. “They make slaves out of us,” Iran complains. “I work and pay extra. I don’t earn a single real to buy food to take home.”
Thousands of cases and a high number of unreported cases
Slave-like labor remains a problem in 21st-century Brazil. Almost 2,600 cases became known last year. The number of unreported cases is likely to be many times higher.
Under President Jair Bolsonaro, federal funding to combat these abuses was cut by almost half. Since President Lula da Silva took office, the budget has increased by a good 44 percent. But the equivalent of 6.5 million dollars to combat slave-like working conditions for around 105 million employees nationwide are, according to experts, meager.
Iran works on a coffee plantation – for lack of alternatives.
Research under police protection
Marcelo Campos works for the regional regulator in the state of Minas Gerais. He researches and investigates possible offenses on site. According to studies, the vast majority of cases occur in agriculture.
Marcelo is accompanied by the federal police when inspecting coffee plantations, “because it is a situation that can cause a lot of harm for the plantation owners, and they can react violently,” he explains.
Marcelo works for the regional supervisory authority – few workers confide in him for fear of their employer.
“No one feels sorry”
The coffee bushes, which are a good two meters high, stand close together and in long rows. Coffee cherries lie in sacks on the ground. Nobody is to be seen. A few moments ago, Marcelo notes that the harvest was still going on here. “We want to find them and talk to them to understand the situation.” The pickers have apparently slipped away – out of fear. Not in front of Marcelo and his team, but in front of the employer.
Two federal police officers run after a fleeing picker. The man is caught. He claims he was just out for a walk. He doesn’t want to talk about work. But someone else is willing. “Poor people work here. Nobody here feels sorry for them,” says Valdecir da Silva, a man with a gaunt face, an emaciated body and tears in his eyes.
“If I came up with the idea of suing a court about the working conditions here, then no one will bother me anymore. Then your name will be stained as if you had stolen or done something worse.”
The black population is particularly vulnerable to exploitation
Brazil is the largest coffee exporter in the world. The business yields hefty profits. Some want even more and exploit their employees to the death. According to a study by the University of Minas Gerais, 95 percent of the victims in agriculture are black men and three quarters of them are black women in private households.
Racism is still a big issue in Brazil, which was the last country in the world to abolish slavery 135 years ago. Until then, says Marcelo Campos, workers were often still slaves, objects, a commodity. “A country with a history of 300 years of slavery has a patriarchal culture that neither values nor fulfills workers’ rights.”
Not even a bed – and even that costs
João Manuel de Oliveira prepares his bed for the night on the bare ground. Even for this he is asked to pay. “It’s very humiliating, we leave our apartments and then have to sleep here on the floor,” he complains.
The plantation manager does not want to understand João’s complaint. Anyone who mocks the accommodation here should take a look at the living conditions of the workers at home. They are even worse, he claims defiantly.
A sense of wrongdoing, Marcelo Campos has repeatedly observed, is almost entirely absent among the perpetrators.
Even Joao can’t make ends meet with his job as a picker.
Lured with false promises
Lured by promises and lacking an alternative, people like João and Iran accept such jobs. They are often carted across the country, which lures them even deeper into debt.
Usually they realize too late that they have fallen into a trap and are being exploited for months. If Marcelo catches the exploiters’ tricks, they have to cancel their workers’ debts and pay out outstanding wages.
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