By Fabio Teixeira and Luciana Magalhaes
Electric vehicle producer BYD brought hundreds of Chinese workers on irregular visas to build a factory in Brazil, a key labor inspector told Reuters on Tuesday, adding the company has pledged to comply with local labor laws for the workers remaining in the country.
A total of 163 of those workers, hired by BYD contractor Jinjiang, were found last month to be working in “slavery-like conditions.”
All of them are leaving or have already left Brazil, said Liane Durao, who has spearheaded the probe announced in late December. She added that about 500 Chinese workers in total were brought into the country by BYD.
BYD and Jinjiang did not immediately reply to a request for comment. BYD has previously said it cut ties with Jinjiang, which disputes the charges by Brazilian authorities.
(Reporting by Fabio Teixeira and Luciana Magalhaes; Editing by Christian Plumb, Manuela Andreoni and Sonali Paul)