Peru still fighting forced labor 168 years after slavery was abolished

forced labor This remains a hidden reality in Peru, where high levels of informality pose a risk of crossing a thin line with labor exploitation, according to experts and authorities, as 168 years have passed since the abolition of slavery in the Andean country.

“Informality often goes hand in hand with illegality, and informality is Peru’s daily bread,” he said. EFE director of the NGO Capital Humano y Social (CHS) Ricardo Valdes, who recalled that the rate of workers without a contract in Peru is about 75%, and in some regions exceeds 90%.

It was Minister of Labor Alejandro Salas who opened this Monday a trade union meeting with the CHS, which aims to “combat this scourge of forced labor”.

CHS data compiled by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) shows that 54% of the country’s adult population is unaware of the crime of forced labor, although more than 3.4 million workers (14%) report being victims of this crime.

These figures contradict the 25 cases of forced labor registered by the State Ministry between 2017 and 2020, which is explained by the lack of complaints from the victims.

In addition, experts note that the economic and labor situation that has developed as a result of the pandemic has led to an increase in job insecurity in Peru.

PROBLEM OF Dignity

Minister Salas assured this Monday at the “Union Meeting on Forced Labor and its Indicators” that this crime “regardless of the exploitation of the worker” takes place within “criminal frameworks” such as illegal mining, human trafficking or child labor.

“There is a question of human dignity here, there is a question where human freedoms are revealed, and we as a society must do something and involve everyone,” he said.

Valdes added EFE that the fine line of labor exploitation can move from “a simple episode of non-recognition of labor rights to a process in which they are threatened to continue working.”

“There we are already entering into forced labor, (…) even into a situation of slavery,” he warned, before lamenting that the victims were becoming accustomed to this crime and beginning to think that they had no way to escape their situation of exploitation.

MINERS, PEASANTS AND OTHER EXPLOITED

The expert assured that he was able to indicate on the map the places in the country where hundreds and even thousands of situations of forced labor occur, especially in the sectors of informal mining, agriculture and criminal gangs.

It takes place in La Rinconada, in the southern Andean region of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, where, at over 5,000 meters above sea level, informal miners observe “cachorreo”, a system whereby they charge nothing for six days. per week to be able to preserve the minerals they extract on the seventh day.

In the valley of the rivers Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro (Vraem), in the central and southern jungles of the country, the remnants of the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso kidnap the Ashaninka population, which they call “the masses”, to provide them with logistics. He added that on the border of the Loreto region with Colombia and Brazil, there is a population forced to work in the fields of coca leaves.

For this reason, Valdes demanded more action and more resources from the state, since with “only twelve cents of the sun (three cents on the dollar)” per person to prosecute for this crime, assistance to the victims and their reintegration cannot be provided. Social.

FORCED LABOR

The crime of forced labor, which was reinstated in 2017 and included in the Peruvian Penal Code, provides for sentences of 6 to 12 years in prison for those who “subjugate or coerce another person by any means or against his will to perform work.” or provide services, whether paid or not.”

On December 3, 1854, then-president Ramon Castilla issued a decree abolishing slavery, a measure that mostly benefited the Afro-Peruvian population, although experts note that the labor force was replaced by Chinese immigrants who worked in agriculture, construction, and guano. islands in semi-slave conditions.

“One sector has been liberated to enslave another,” Valdes noted, before taking into account that this situation is partly reproduced by informal work and labor exploitation.

(EFE)