The world’s largest EV maker now faces forced labor investigations on two continents — and just landed on Brazil’s official slavery blacklist
BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle giant that surpassed Tesla in global sales and markets itself as the clean-energy future of transportation, is confronting a widening pattern of forced labor allegations that now spans two continents and multiple government investigations.
On April 7, Brazil’s Ministry of Labor added BYD to the country’s Lista Suja — a government registry of employers found to have subjected workers to conditions analogous to slavery. The blacklisting came just days after a separate investigation by China Labor Watch documented what it described as systematic forced labor conditions at BYD’s $6 billion factory under construction in Szeged, Hungary — the company’s first European manufacturing plant.
Together, the cases paint a picture of a company whose rapid global expansion appears to rely on a labor model that international watchdogs say meets multiple International Labour Organization indicators of forced labor, including debt bondage, passport confiscation, wage withholding, and excessive overtime enforced through threats.
The Brazil Case: ‘Conditions Analogous to Slavery’
The roots of BYD’s Brazilian crisis trace to December 2024, when labor inspectors halted construction at a BYD factory in Camaçari, in the northeastern state of Bahia. Inspectors found that 163 Chinese nationals imported to build the plant were living and working in what prosecutors described as “degrading” and “precarious” conditions.
According to filings by Brazilian prosecutors, workers’ passports had been confiscated, up to 70 percent of their wages were withheld, and employees were threatened with heavy financial penalties if they attempted to leave. The workers could not exit their dormitories without permission. In May 2025, prosecutors filed a lawsuit seeking 257 million reais — approximately $46 million — in damages from BYD and its contractors, China JinJiang Construction Brazil and Tecmonta Equipamentos Inteligentes.
BYD attributed the violations to its contractor, Jinjiang Group, which denied the claims. But Brazilian officials have maintained that the primary employer retains ultimate responsibility for contractor compliance — a legal principle that proved decisive. According to reporting by CNBC, BYD signed a deal with labor prosecutors over the matter but not with labor inspectors — the distinction that ultimately prevented the company from avoiding the registry.
Companies placed on the Lista Suja face significant financial consequences. State development institutions, including BNDES — Brazil’s national development bank, whose low-interest financing is central to large-scale industrial expansion — are restricted from extending loans to listed companies. BYD’s Camaçari plant, structured in phases requiring ongoing financing, now faces materially constrained expansion prospects for the two-year duration of the listing.
Hungary: A Pattern Repeats
Before the Brazil blacklisting made headlines, a parallel investigation had already surfaced in Europe. China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based labor rights organization, published a detailed report based on covert interviews with 50 Chinese migrant workers at BYD’s Szeged factory site — a facility intended to produce approximately 300,000 vehicles per year for the European market.
The findings, as reported by CBC News, describe conditions strikingly similar to those documented in Brazil:
- Seven-day workweeks with no rest days, with workers instructed to lie to inspectors about their hours
- Shifts of 12 to 14 hours during peak periods, with some workers logging 30 to 31 consecutive days without a day off
- Delayed wage payments of up to three months, with final payments withheld until workers returned to China
- Steep recruitment fees functioning as a form of debt bondage
- Workers entering Hungary on short-term business visas rather than authorized work permits
- Between 20 and 30 percent of wages withheld and deposited in Chinese bank accounts, with workers threatened if they departed early
In December, CLW’s executive director Li Qiang wrote to government officials in Csongrád-Csanád County, outlining seven apparent violations of Hungary’s labor code and demanding an investigation. According to The World from PRX, the Hungarian government has opened an investigation into the allegations. BYD did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
One of the subcontractors named in the report — AIM Construction Hungary KFT, a subsidiary of China-based Jinjian Construction Group — is the same parent company identified in the Brazil case. When contacted by journalists, a man at the company who was apparently Hungarian answered but hung up after learning the call concerned labor law violations.
The ILO Framework: Multiple Red Flags
The allegations against BYD align with multiple indicators of forced labor as defined by the International Labour Organization’s established framework. The ILO identifies 11 indicators, including abuse of vulnerability, deception, restriction of movement, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, and excessive overtime.
Records from both the Brazil and Hungary investigations suggest the presence of at least six of these indicators across BYD’s operations. The use of the same contractor network — Jinjiang Group — in both locations raises questions about whether the labor practices reflect a systemic approach to workforce management rather than isolated incidents.
A Broader Pattern: EU Probes and U.S. Supply Chain Scrutiny
The forced labor allegations arrive as BYD faces escalating regulatory pressure from multiple directions. The European Commission has opened a separate investigation into whether BYD’s Hungary plant received illegal Chinese state subsidies — a probe that could force the company to sell assets, reduce capacity, or repay subsidies and pay fines. BYD already faces a 17 percent additional tariff on EU imports, on top of the standard 10 percent duty, as a result of the Commission’s anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EV manufacturers.
In the United States, BYD’s supply chain faces scrutiny under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). In August 2025, the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force designated lithium as a high-priority sector for UFLPA enforcement, reflecting growing lithium reserves in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and allegations of state-sponsored labor transfers in lithium-related industries. U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped approximately 7,325 shipments for UFLPA review in fiscal year 2025, releasing only about 6.5 percent into commerce.
BYD is among six Chinese battery companies identified in the Decoupling from Foreign Adversarial Battery Dependence Act as closely linked to the Chinese Communist Party — a designation that could trigger additional import restrictions.
The Green Paradox
BYD’s 2025 annual report recorded revenue of 804 billion yuan — approximately $116.4 billion — with over 4.6 million new energy vehicles sold and overseas exports surpassing one million units for the first time. The company’s market capitalization stands at approximately $129 billion.
Yet the company’s rapid global expansion — marketed under the banner of clean energy and environmental sustainability — now faces a fundamental credibility challenge. The forced labor allegations documented across two continents involve the same contractor networks, the same categories of violations, and the same population of vulnerable Chinese migrant workers transported thousands of miles from home.
Whether BYD’s labor practices constitute a deliberate strategy or a failure of contractor oversight remains an open question. What the public records now show is a pattern: two countries, two investigations, one blacklisting, and a growing body of evidence that the human cost of the world’s largest EV maker’s expansion has yet to be fully accounted for.
Editor’s Notes
Key Source: Brazil’s Ministry of Labor placed BYD on its Lista Suja registry on April 7, 2026, following findings that workers at its Camaçari plant were subjected to conditions analogous to slavery, including passport confiscation and wage withholding of up to 70 percent.
Note 1: The International Labour Organization identifies 11 indicators of forced labor. The allegations against BYD in both Brazil and Hungary align with at least six: abuse of vulnerability, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, debt bondage, excessive overtime, and deception regarding working conditions.
Note 2: China Labor Watch (CLW) is a New York-based nonprofit founded in 2000. The organization has previously investigated labor conditions at factories supplying Apple, Samsung, and other major corporations. Its methodology involves sending undercover investigators into factories to document conditions firsthand.