Brazilian authorities have halted the construction of a factory for the Chinese electric vehicle company BYD, after they found more than 160 Chinese nationals living in “slavery-like” conditions.

The workers, based in a construction site in the north-eastern Brazilian state Bahia, were found to be labouring for excessive hours – sometimes for seven days straight – and living in “degrading” accommodation.

The workers, who were hired by a contractor called Jinjiang Construction Brazil, were said to be unable to leave without permission, and more than 100 had their passports withheld. The workers were hired in China and brought to Brazil...

Authorities from the public labour prosecutor’s office had been investigating the site since November. “We found that the work of … these 163 workers, was carried out in slavery-like conditions,” the local labour prosecutor’s office said during a news conference on Monday.

“Minimum safety conditions were not being met in the work environment,” authorities added.

In Brazil, slavery-like conditions include forced labour, as well as degrading work conditions, long hours that pose a risk to workers’ health, debt bondage – when a person is forced to work to pay off a debt rather than for new pay – and any work that violates human dignity....

BYD said it “does not tolerate disrespect for Brazilian law and human dignity” and that it had immediately terminated the contract with Jinjiang for part of the work at the factory and was considering “other appropriate measures”...