Brazil is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Brazilian women and children are exploited in sex trafficking within the country, and federal police report higher child prostitution rates in the north and northeast regions. Brazilian women are found in sex trafficking abroad, often in Western Europe. Women and girls from other South American countries, including Paraguay, are exploited in sex trafficking in Brazil.Transgender Brazilians are forced into prostitution in Brazil. Brazilian men and transgender Brazilians have been exploited in sex trafficking in Spain and Italy. Child sex tourism remains a problem, particularly in resort and coastal areas; many child sex tourists are from Europe. Brazilian law defines trabalho escravo, or slave labor, as forced labor or labor performed during exhausting work days or in degrading work conditions. While not all individuals in trabalho escravo are forced labor victims, many are. Some Brazilian men, and to lesser extent women and children, are subjected to trabalho escravo and debt bondage in rural areas, including in ranching, agriculture, charcoal production, logging, and mining. Exploitation of workers is sometimes linked to environmental damage and deforestation, particularly in the Amazon region. Brazilians are also found in trabalho escravo in urban areas in construction, factories, and the restaurant and hospitality industries. Labor inspectors have identified trabalho escravo used by sub-contractors constructing subsidized housing for a government program. Brazil is a destination for men, women, and children from other countries—including Bolivia, Paraguay, Haiti, and China—exploited in forced labor and debt bondage in many sectors, including construction; the textile industry, particularly in Sao Paulo; and small businesses. Brazilian women and children—250,000 children are employed as domestic workers in Brazil—as well as girls from other countries in the region are exploited in domestic servitude. Some Brazilian trafficking victims are forced to engage in criminal activity in Brazil and neighboring countries, including drug trafficking. Brazilian forced labor victims have been identified in other countries, including in Europe. NGOs and officials report some police officers tolerate child prostitution, patronize brothels, and rob and assault women in prostitution, impeding proactive identification of sex trafficking victims. Government officials and former officials have been investigated and prosecuted for trabalho escravo.
The Government of Brazil does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government improved data collection on victim identification, strengthened penalties for child sex traffickers, and continued awareness-raising efforts. Brazilian statutes prohibiting trafficking do not align with international law, making it difficult to accurately assess government efforts. Most cases took many years to progress to final convictions, and the number of reported convictions was low given the scale of the trafficking problem. Government funding and provision of specialized services for victims was inadequate; authorities confirmed providing services to only a small portion of potential victims identified.

RECOMMENDATIONS  FOR  BRAZIL:
Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and sentence traffickers, including those engaged in internal sex trafficking not involving movement, and complicit officials; in partnership with civil society, increase funding for specialized services and shelters for victims of sex trafficking and forced labor; vigorously investigate, prosecute, and sentence those who engage in the prostitution of children, including in child sex tourism; amend legislation to harmonize the definition of trafficking with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol and establish sufficiently stringent sentences for traffickers; verify through ongoing oversight that victims of both sex and labor trafficking are referred to comprehensive services and that officials working at social service centers have funding and training to provide specialized care, such as employment assistance; increase oversight of local guardianship councils so child trafficking victims receive specialized services and case management; enhance timely data collection on prosecutions, convictions, and victim identification and care; increase staff dedicated to proactively identifying victims of sex trafficking and domestic servitude; fund the replication of the Mato Grosso job training program for freed laborers in other states; and increase collaboration between government entities involved in combating different forms of trafficking.

PROSECUTION
Brazilian authorities maintained law enforcement efforts against trafficking, although the lack of a unified anti-trafficking law and comprehensive data made efforts difficult to evaluate. Brazilian laws prohibit most forms of trafficking in persons. Articles 231 and 231-A of the penal code respectively prohibit international and domestic sex trafficking but only if it involves movement, with violence, threats, or fraud as aggravating elements as opposed to necessary elements of the offense.These articles prescribe penalties of two to eight years’ imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent but not commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.The laws are inconsistent with international law as the crime of trafficking includes movement as a necessary element and also prohibits moving a person for the purposes of prostitution. Officials investigated and prosecuted cases of sex trafficking not involving movement under other statutes, such as those related to pimping or sexual exploitation. Authorities increased penalties for commercial sexual exploitation of children in 2014. Article 149 of the penal code prohibits trabalho escravo, or reducing a person to a condition analogous to slavery, prescribing penalties of two to eight years’ imprisonment. Article 149 goes beyond situations in which people are held in service through force, fraud, or coercion to criminalize other treatment, including subjecting workers to exhausting work days or degrading working conditions.Article 149 does not adequately criminalize non-physical coercion, such as threatening foreign victims with deportation unless they continue work. Draft legislation to harmonize the definition of trafficking with the 2000 UN TIP Protocol was before Congress.