Brazil has stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, in the wake of accusations that some workers at a site owned by the Chinese electric vehicle producer had been victims of human trafficking.
The announcement came days after labor authorities said they found 163 Chinese workers who had been brought to Brazil irregularly in “slavery-like” conditions at the BYD factory construction site in the northeastern state of Bahia. The workers were employed by contractor Jinjiang Group, which has denied any wrongdoing.
Later, the authorities also said the workers were victims of human trafficking, adding that they had entered Brazil on temporary work visas.
Photo: AP
Dozens of the Chinese workers found by authorities in poor condition at the site have been taken and placed in hotels in the country’s tropical northeast region.
The factory has become a symbol of China’s growing influence in the South American nation and an example of a closer relationship between the countries. BYD has invested US$620 million to set up the Bahia factory complex alone.
Brazil is the biggest overseas market for BYD, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ministry’s decision.
The Bahia Labor Prosecutors’ Office urged the company to place the workers at local hotels in Camacari.
Inspections carried out since November found “degrading working conditions,” including beds in workers’ accommodation lacking mattresses, and one bathroom per 31 workers, the Bahia Ministry of Public Labor (MPT) said in a statement.
The workers, who spent long hours under the sun, had “visible signs of skin damage,” it said.
The MPT added that it suspected “forced labor,” with workers’ passports confiscated and their employer “retaining 60 percent of their salary.”
It ordered construction to be suspended at part of the site.
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice said in a separate statement on Friday that if irregularities found by prosecutors in the BYD factory are confirmed, it would revoke the residence permits it had issued to the Chinese workers.
The Ministry of Justice had already sent a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to suspend BYD temporary visa issuance on Friday last week, three days before the labor authorities’ findings were made public, a source with knowledge of the communication said.
The order was then forwarded to Brazil’s embassy in Beijing, the source added.
Earlier this week, BYD said it would “immediately terminate the contract” with Jinjiang and was “studying other appropriate measures.”
In a social media post on Thursday, which was reposted by a BYD spokesperson, Jinjiang rejected the Brazilian authorities’ accusations about the work conditions, saying that the portrayal of the workers as “enslaved” was inaccurate and that there had been translation misunderstandings.
On Friday, local residents in Camacari said that many of the Chinese workers had come and already left the town. Their whereabouts were not clear and it was also unknown who was handling them at this point.
Nearly one in five cars BYD sold outside of China in the first 11 months of this year was in Brazil.
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
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