Eradicating slave labour by 2030: the challenge of worker health surveillance

Eradicating modern slavery is a relevant scientific, social, and institutional challenge issue. Indeed, efforts are being made at a global scale to understand and eradicate contemporary slavery as a target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. However, little attention has been given to the Worker Health Surveillance (WHS) in the struggle against contemporary forms of slavery. To fill this gap, the paper discuss contemporary slave labour (CSL)a workers health surveillance perspective, calling attention to challenges evident in the case of Brazil. Further, we explain the connection of CSL to workers health and to workers health surveillance (WHS). We then identify and discuss three challenges of CSL to WHS: 1. help to characterise and identify economic sectors and populations most affected by slave labour; 2. identify determinants, risks, and health effects related to CSL; and 3. strengthen workers health services to trigger specific actions in terms of formation, information, and intervention in regions of high CSL prevalence. We conclude that Workers Health Surveillance can play an important role towards workers emancipationslavery relations.