Country: Venezuela

Group: Warao

Date Finalized: 11/13/20

Team: Natasha Chandra (lead), Colleen Clauss, Maya Shrikant, Michael Demangone

Content Warning: sex slavery, forced labor, violence against women, human trafficking

Approximate Time Period: 1872-1912, 2015-present

The Warao people in Venezuela are currently facing forced labor. I would rate the information and findings a 2 because there were few accounts of forced labor.

              The Warao tribe, living in Venezuela’s Orinoco Delta, is the second-largest native population. Before Europeans arrived in Venezuela, the Warao lived in lands to the northwest of the Orinoco Delta and they were an agricultural society (Minority Rights Group International, 2017). The Warao came into contact with the Spanish and Dutch during the colonization of Venezuela, where they were forced into labor due to the demand of rubber at the time (Encyclopedia.Com, n.d.). Once colonization increased in Venezuela, the Warao people were forced to move further into the delta and give up their culture (Minority Rights Group International, 2017). In 2018, the Global Action Against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants provided support to Warao migrants in Venezuela (United Nations, 2018). The public defender’s office in Brazil “has identified cases of labour exploitation among Venezuelan migrants on big farms since 2015…including those from Venezuela’s Warao indigenous group” (Moloney, 2018). Since the establishment of oil companies in the region, there has been a displacement of Warao villages (United Nations, 2018). This displacement in combination with dire economic distress has forced thousands of Warao to seek asylum and work. With an influx of vulnerable immigrants, the Brazilian-Venezuelan border has become a hotspot for human trafficking (United Nations, 2018). Male migrants are exploited as agricultural labors on ranches, getting paid half of what they are promised. Women are forced into sex work and exploitation as domestic workers (Moloney, 2018). The State Committee Against Trafficking in Persons of Pará and the State Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labor have provided legal assistance to the Venezuelan Warao migrants (United Nations, 2018).

Sources

  1. Minority Rights Group International. (2017, December). Warao and Kariña. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/warao-and-karina/.
  2. Moloney, Anastasia. (2018, January 26). Venezuela Migrants Prey to Forced Labour, Abuse in Brazil. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://news.trust.org/item/20180126163424-9ws59.
  3. United Nations. (2018, November 21). GLO.ACT Helps Provide Legal and Social Assistance to Vulnerable Warao Migrants from Venezuela in Bélem do Pará. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/glo-act/glo-act-helps-provide-legal-and-social-assistance-to-vulnerable-warao-migrants-from-venezuela-in-blem-do-par.html
  4. Encyclopedia.com (n.d.). Warao. Retrieved November 5, 2020 from https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/warao.