Brasilia, immigrants from Bangladesh forced to work in slave-like conditions
Dhaka (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Brazilian police have discovered and denounced a gang specialized in the trafficking immigrants from Bangladesh, who on entering the South American country were deprived of passports and forced to work in slave-like conditions. At least eighty people, the vast majority simple unqualified workers, were drawn by fellow countrymen with the promise of work for a monthly salary of up to 1,500 dolars. But it ended with their enslavement and the obligation to pay - through their work - almost 10 thousand dollars to their captors, before being freed to return home.
Cases of illegal immigration to Brazil, the largest economy of the entire Latin American continent, has grown exponentially recently. The traffickers use the borders with Peru, Bolivia and Guyana as transit routes into the country. The vast majority of immigrants are then exploited in the building sector, with the 2014 World Cup at the gates and a delay in the overall construction of facilities, the demand for labor - forced into "slavery" - has soared.
The police discovered the Bangladeshi workers in eight different huts in the town of Samambaia, near Brasilia, in inhumane conditions. The traffickers have been identified and investigators have issued 14 arrest warrants against them. They include the four "coyotes", the term which defines the people involved in illegal transit at the border.
The story of Bangladeshi workers in Brazil is just the latest in a series of scandals that involved the Asian workers at home and abroad. In recent days, AsiaNews published the story of 34 Indonesian workers reduced to a state of slavery, a complaint that has sown confusion and indignation in the country. In addition, also in Bangladesh, the collapse of the factory-lager, which has caused over a thousand deaths.
.png)
