Bolivian teenagers awarded damages for illegal labor

Two Bolivian teenagers aged 16 and 17 have each been awarded $2,100 in damages because they were illegally recruited to work in a sewing workshop in the town of Cabreúva, São Paulo.

The agreement was reached Thursday (Feb. 20) following a meeting of representatives from the Labor Ministry, the Public Labor Prosecutor's Office, the Bolivian Consulate, and the company that contracted the sewing workshop.

The Lower Juvenile Court will hear the teenagers, who are away from their legal guardian, and decide whether they will remain in the country. But the Public Labor Prosecutor, Ana Lucia Casarotto, warned that if they continue living in Brazil, the two boys will be barred from working in sewing shops, one of the “worst forms of child labor” under Convention 182 of the International Labor Organisation (ILO).

The two teenagers were found along with 15 other Bolivians in the sewing workshop, which came under investigation following a report that some of them were working as slaves.

Translated by Mayra Borges