Indigenous people from Mato Grosso do Sul are the most

Although it is not the state with the largest indigenous population in the country, Mato Grosso do Sul easily leads the statistics when it comes to blatant exploitation of indigenous slave labor. Since 2013, according to data from the Ministry of Labor and Employment, 363 indigenous people have been rescued from this type of situation throughout Brazil. Almost 60% of the victims, 205, were from Mato Grosso do Sul.

The state is known for complex land problems, delays in demarcating Indigenous Lands (TI) and for the confinement and mixing of ethnicities in small, violent areas that are often disconnected from their traditions.

According to prosecutors and an auditor interviewed for the report, inspection actions tend to catch indigenous people living in precarious shacks or in the middle of forests, accommodation without drinking water or sanitary facilities, lack of documentation, work activities carried out without basic protective equipment and unsafe transportation, among other violations.

“There is a lot of injustice. Working conditions are precarious, they need to go deep into the forest in search of food, fish or hunt to be able to eat”, says Zélia Maria Batista, missionary and coordinator of the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi) of Mato Grosso do Sul.

The most frequent spaces for exploitation of indigenous labor are in the countryside, mainly in sugarcane fields, prosecutors report. The indigenous people still work in the cassava harvest, in eucalyptus plantations and in pastures.

“We are facing a worker subjected to the worst possible conditions. And, since colonization, we see more of the same”, denounces Paulo Douglas Almeida de Moraes, labor attorney and regional coordinator for the eradication of slave labor in Mato Grosso do Sul.

The problem does not just occur within the geographic limits of the state. Many people from Mato Grosso do Sul, from different ethnicities, are also going to pick apples in Rio Grande do Sul, in “strenuous” conditions, as Cimi has already warned.

In December 2023, in one of the most recent cases, seven indigenous people, including an 11-year-old child and a 17-year-old teenager, were found in a situation similar to slavery on a farm in Dourados, in the center-south of the state, according to most populous city in Mato Grosso do Sul. The employer was Virgílio Mettifogo, one of the defendants in the so-called Caarapó massacre, in 2016, when an indigenous person was killed and six others injured.

Rescues of people in work situations similar to slavery / Repórter Brasil

“Mato Grosso do Sul is one of the centers for promoting agribusiness, which has in its historical profile the practice of enslaving, or placing its workers in jobs similar to slavery”, says Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib).

Accommodation in humiliating conditions, on a farm in Itaquiraí (MS), where 24 Guarani were rescued in June 2020 (Photo: Labor Inspection Secretariat/Disclosure)

Historical exploration

Of the almost 1.7 million indigenous people in Brazil, according to the 2022 IBGE Census, 6.8% live in Mato Grosso do Sul, which makes the state third in the ranking of this population. The largest contingent of indigenous people is in Amazonas, 491 thousand individuals. The official survey also reports that 1 million indigenous people live outside demarcated lands.

The policy for indigenous people adopted by the Brazilian state in the first half of the 20th century had a particularity in Mato Grosso do Sul. The authorities concentrated large contingents of different ethnicities in a few selected areas without connections with the cultural traditions of those housed.

Demarcated, these areas are today considered small, excessively populated and full of social problems. It is no coincidence that they are popularly known as confinements.

Those who live in villages in Mato Grosso do Sul face a lack of space for agricultural activities and, as Cimi often reports, alarming rates of violence.

Those who leave these areas face challenges in entering the job market, among other reasons, due to low education and racism. Many fall into poverty, cases of alcoholism are not rare and there are those who, without prospects, wander around urban areas in municipalities like Dourados.

Another common scene in the state are canvas camps with entire indigenous families living in the narrow strip between the shoulders of highways and farm fences.

Rescues of people in work situations similar to slavery / Repórter Brasil

“In the villages there are no jobs or support for indigenous people to support their families. They need to seek their livelihood in companies and other states. They spend months away, the women are alone with their children, and they earn very little”, says Eliseu Lopes Kaiowá, leader of the Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous ethnic group, the most numerous in Mato Grosso do Sul. “Governments need to create employment opportunities within the villages and in cities,” he says.

The high number of Guarani-Kaiowás in the state and the context of poverty to which they are subjected also explain the high number of rescued people of Mato Grosso do Sul origin. Prejudice, highlights Zélia Batista, is another harmful aspect that favors exploitation. “In Dourados, we do not see indigenous people working in the service sector, as salespeople, for example. They work as collectors, on garbage trucks”, says the Cimi representative.

Kaiowá Camp in Dourados (MS), on the banks of BR-163. Indigenous people live in the state in conditions of confinement and a mixture of ethnicities in small areas (Photo: Lunaê Parracho/Repórter Brasil)

Stopped in time

Labor inspector Antônio Maria Parron has worked in Mato Grosso do Sul since 1995. He states that, in almost 30 years, there has been no improvement in the working conditions of indigenous people.

When he started, he recalls, one of the aspects that caught his attention was the speech made by employers to justify the lack of registration when hiring indigenous people. “They said that the indigenous community did not want registration so as not to lose their cultural identity. Today, thirty years later, some employers still want to use this same justification: ‘There is no document, how am I going to register it?’

The lack of documentation is one of the difficulties in rescuing workers. To receive the amounts owed, indigenous people must have documentation. Parron seeks to guide each rescued through this process. “They have the right to have rights, we need to help with that”, he says. “These workers live in poverty, have low education and are undocumented: it is an open door for exploitation.”

Leaders manage indigenous people

The settlement of indigenous people changed the organization of communities. In relations between employers and villages, the figure of the head emerged, a type of person responsible for labor negotiations. “They end up being exploited by the indigenous people themselves, like the headmen, who allow these employers to enter the villages and take the indigenous people to other places without saying exactly the conditions”, explains attorney Jeferson Pereira, administrative coordinator of the Public Ministry of Labor of Golden.

The head, warns Moraes, receives a prior commission for the agency of the indigenous people. It is also up to him to receive complaints about the poor conditions faced in the work camps, which makes it difficult to communicate exploitation to the authorities.

Youth without opportunities

The rescued indigenous people of Mato Grosso do Sul are, on average, younger than what is observed in incidents of this type. The majority are between 18 and 24 years old, compared to 30 to 39 years old in other cases.

For Moraes, this characteristic is related to the strenuous nature of the work to which indigenous people are subjected. “The activities are extremely tiring. The head makes this selection and younger people are in greater demand because older people would not even have the physical conditions for this type of work”, she explains.

The lack of opportunities and support for indigenous youth also contributes to this exploitation, in Eliseu Kaiowá’s opinion. “Many families are unable to buy clothes and materials, and young people often drop out of school and have to go out to work.”

This lack of education makes it difficult for indigenous people to enter the market and exposes them to exploitation, as confirmed by data from the Annual List of Social Information (Rais), reported by the Ministry of Labor and Employment to Reporter Brazil.

Rescues of people in work situations similar to slavery / Repórter Brasil

In the 2022 Rais, indigenous people had the highest illiteracy rate among all races, considering only those with formal occupations. Three out of every hundred were illiterate. That year, among 52.7 million formal jobs, 90.3 thousand were occupied by indigenous people.

“We need to start with literacy, with quality education, and then move on to professional qualifications. Indigenous communities have been cut off from access to education and improved social conditions for many years”, highlights prosecutor Pereira.

Demarcate and respect

The land issue, according to the consensus among the six experts interviewed for this report, is the cause of exploitation and could also be its solution. “The indigenous population has grown and the land allocated to them is little, in addition to not being the ancestral territory from which they were expelled by colonization. They are confined to reserves, where there is overcrowding”, analyzes Batista.

A report by the Socio-Environmental Institute published in 2002 already showed the gradual loss of Guarani-Kaiowá lands over the years. At that time, the Guarani population of Mato Grosso do Sul was distributed across 22 indigenous lands and was estimated at 25 thousand people.

“We need to demarcate indigenous lands as a policy to give economic and cultural autonomy to the people, who would no longer be submissive”, asks Dinamam Tuxá, from Apib.

Eliseu Kaiowá adds: it is necessary to demarcate and offer conditions so that indigenous people can live off the land. “To produce, we need support, policies for sustainability and the strengthening of family farming.”

“The way they deal with the land is very different. It’s not exploitation. It’s coexistence”, says prosecutor Moraes. “The earth is the mother”, concludes Batista.