Debt servitude and marginalization in the Chaco of Paraguay

The report prepared by consultants Alvaro Bedoya Silva-Santisteban and Eduardo Bedoya Garland confirms the existence of forced labor, while also describing and analyzing labor relations—based in many cases on debt bondage—on traditional ranches that practice extensive, low-tech cattle ranching, located in remote regions of the Paraguayan Chaco.

Following the investigation, a dialogue on this issue has been opened between the ILO and the country's authorities. At the request of the Paraguayan government, during the second week of April 2005, three workshops were held for employers, indigenous and non-indigenous workers, and labor inspectors, where the results of this study were presented. All participants expressed their rejection and moral condemnation of the perpetuation of this form of forced labor and offered their cooperation to achieve its definitive eradication. For their part, the inspectors who traveled to the area also presented the conclusions of their investigations, confirming the existence of a debt bondage system for some workers and a series of violations of the Paraguayan Labor Code. The Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security emphasized the need for an office of the Ministry of Justice and Labor in the Chaco region to facilitate access to information, as well as to facilitate inquiries and complaints, and to allow for the submission of mandatory labor records.