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
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS