A Comissão de Direitos Humanos (CDH) aprovou na quarta-feira (29) projeto que cria novas medidas de enfrentamento ao tráfico humano (PL 4.468/2021). Among them is the typification as crime facilitating the clandestine entry of immigrants abroad. The proposal will be analyzed by the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ).

Presented by Senator Mecias de Jesus (Republicanos-RR), the project received a favorable opinion in the form of an alternative text (substitute) from Senator Damares Alves (Republicanos-DF).

The penalty for facilitating the clandestine entry of immigrants abroad will be four to eight years, equating what is already applied to human trafficking for the purpose of organ removal, slave labor, illegal adoption or sexual exploitation.

Campaigns and complaints

The proposal also determines that the public authorities must carry out and promote national campaigns to combat human trafficking.

The original project called for the creation of a specific channel for receiving complaints about human trafficking. But the rapporteur determined that existing complaint channels, such as the numbers 190, 100 and 180, can be used. Other electronic media, such as messaging apps (WhatsApp and Telegram), SMS, and other social networks can also be used. The federal government will be responsible for maintaining these channels, not necessarily the Ministry of Justice, as the original text provided.

Damares rejected the creation of other crimes such as “forging marriages or stable unions” or “renting children” for the purpose of creating fake families to facilitate the clandestine entry of immigrants into foreign countries. According to the senator, the creation of these criminal types would be unnecessary.

Fight

In the justification, the author of the project says that, due to the deterioration of living conditions in Brazil observed in recent years, with an increase in unemployment, inflation and misery, the number of Brazilians detained in the United States for trying to immigrate illegally more than tripled.

The rapporteur was favorable to the idea of ​​the project: “We welcome the initiative to update the legislation to face the frauds that have been woven by human traffickers. They take advantage of people who are driven by high vulnerability or motivated by unfounded hopes to accept empty promises of a better life. This is when they are not coerced, threatened or forced to accept the abuses that these criminals commit, from recruitment to the arrival at the destination, passing through the entire dangerous journey. The fate of many of these victims is analogous to slave labor, forced prostitution, debt servitude or even death, including by drowning or thirst,” she argues.

Senate Agency (Reproduction authorized upon mention of the Senate Agency).