As one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in Latin America, Brazil is a country of origin, transit, and reception of international human trafficking. It also has high rates of internal trafficking within its borders. While exact numbers are hard to come by, according to the Global Slavery Index on any given day in there were , people in conditions of modern slavery in Brazil. This translates to 1. Brazil is also currently recovering from an economic recession worsened by COVID, so these numbers have likely increased.
While the Brazilian government has shown an increasing commitment to combating human trafficking, the U. S Department of State still ranks Brazil as a Tier 2 Country as the government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking. The Brazilian government is expanding law enforcement efforts through increased investigations and prosecutions, but a lack of reporting on human trafficking data makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of these efforts.
Forced labor and sexual exploitation are the most prolific types of trafficking in Brazil, but forced domestic labor, forced marriages, and organ trafficking occur as well.
Labor-intensive industries such as cattle-ranching, coffee production, forestry, and charcoal production have created a demand for cheap labor β demand often filled by modern slavery. Laptops, computers, and mobile phones are also highly at risk. In urban areas of Brazil, human trafficking is focused primarily on the sex trade and textile production. With limited official statistics, the number of cases of sexual exploitation is difficult to determine.
Child sexual exploitation remains an issue as well, especially in northeastern resort and coastal regions and areas frequented by tourists. In there were a reported 77, cases of sexual exploitation of children during just Carnival. Brazil has the highest number of domestic workers worldwide, at an estimated seven million. Many of these are in conditions of modern-day slavery, being denied basic rights, working long hours with little to no wages, having restricted movement, and being subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
