Follow up on the information
Brazilian officials reported on Wednesday that they rescued more than 160 Chinese workers who were living in “slavery-like conditions” while working on a project to build an electric car factory for giant Chinese company BYD.
For more news, subscribe to our channel on Telegram
The Brazilian branch of BYD said in a statement on Monday that its contract with the company “Jinjiang Construction Brasil” responsible for work on the site has been “immediately terminated”.
The factory is located in the northeastern state of Bahia, and when completed, it will be BYD’s largest factory for electric cars outside of Asia, with a production capacity of 150,000 cars per year.
Work on part of the site was suspended by order of Bahia’s Ministry of Public Works, which had been conducting inspection tours since November.
The ministry said it had identified “163 workers who appear to be living under slavery-like conditions with Jinjiang, a company that provides services to BYD.”
A spokesman for the ministry told AFP that all these workers were Chinese nationals.
In a statement, the Ministry of Labor said that employees are being held under “degrading working conditions”.
She said, “The workers sleep on beds without mattresses, and there is no cupboard to put their personal belongings which were mixed with food supplies.”
The ministry also found that there was only one bathroom for every 31 workers, “which forced them to wake up at 4 am to stand in lines before leaving to start work.”
After arriving at the work site, workers are “exposed to intense solar radiation,” noting that signs of “skin damage” appear.
The ministry also suspects “forced labor” conditions, where the employer confiscated the workers’ passports and “kept 60% of their wages,” and received “the remaining 40% in Chinese currency.”
The authorities organized an online hearing on Thursday so that BYD and Jinjiang could correct the violations found.
BYD in Brazil declared that it “does not accept violations of Brazilian law and human dignity,” adding that it immediately moved the 163 workers to hotels in the region.