Bound by Promises

Brazil/USA 2006 • 17 mins • Produced by CEJIL, CPT and WITNESS • Subtitled

Forced to leave home due to lack of economic opportunity, thousands of workers a year are lured to remote areas of Brazil with false promises of fair wages and working standards. Forced to work under deplorable conditions these workers are rarely paid and are charged exorbitant prices for basic necessities – sometimes even working tools – holding them in a cycle of debt bondage. 25,000 workers are estimated to be enslaved every year in rural Brazil. Although Brazil launched a National Plan to Eradicate Slave Labour, no offending landowner has ever been imprisoned for slave labour.