Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madre de Dios (Agenzia Fides) – The Human Rights Office of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado in Peru has reported on the continuing complaints reaching them from the workers of the lowest classes. They have been lured under false pretenses to work in the local gold mines and then find themselves amidst appalling sanitary conditions, with low wages, without minimum safety conditions, and at the mercy of crooks who do not pay their salary. The Human Rights Office of the Apostolic Vicariate, of which Sister Amparo Alvarez is the coordinator, conveyed the news to Fides. The Sister also spoke a great deal on this problem even in the "National Dialogue” broadcast by Radio Aurora of Puerto Maldonado.
According to Sister Amparo, the complaints are of numerous accidents in which workers have been left to fend for themselves, without treatment or medication, since there is no area in health coverage and employers tend to ignore the problem completely. "The work we carry out with a group of volunteers – said the religious sister - examines the cases of very poor workers on the outskirts of Puerto Maldonado, above all in Huepetuhe, especially in relation to the problems of the mines." Oftentimes it is the young people who report on non-payment of their salaries and on the neglect they have suffered after the accidents that occur in the areas of gold mining. The Human Rights Office of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Maldonado has asked the authorities to monitor these activities and defend the human rights of hundreds of Peruvians involved in this type of work, because the Office does not have a budget sufficient to operate with greater efficiency for the parties concerned. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 07/06/2010)
