"They came to build China’s EV future. Investigators found conditions akin to ‘slavery.’"

The electric carmaker BYD was hailed as a job creator in a struggling Brazilian city. Then authorities started investigating an improbable tip…

…Their food was prepared in an improvised kitchen in the garage, amid industrial detritus and vermin, and they never seemed to do anything for fun. All they did was work…

They departed every morning at dawn and didn’t return until dusk. The hours in between were spent helping to build Latin America’s largest electric car factory for the world’s biggest electric automaker, China’s BYD…

The Chinese companies involved in the project have denied the slavery allegations and deemed them culturally insensitive…

Brazil’s Public Labor Ministry accused Brazil BYD Auto and two of its Chinese labor contractors, China Jinjiang Construction Brazil and Tecmonta Intelligent Equipment Brazil, of “trafficking” manual laborers…

Neither BYD’s corporate office in China nor the two contractors named in the suit responded to a series of detailed questions submitted by The Post...

In public, the companies denied the allegations…

His team recently interviewed 50 Jinjiang laborers working on the BYD factory in Hungary. In a letter to local authorities shared with The Post, the organization alleged “clear indicators of forced labor,” including 12-hour workdays and granting rest only when it rained…