BYD's "Dirty List" Escape: Brazilian Court Removes Chinese EV Giant from Forced Labor Registry — but Questions Remain

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Just two days after being blacklisted for slavery-like conditions at its flagship factory, BYD secured a court order to wipe its name from Brazil's labor abuse registry. Critics say the legal maneuver doesn't erase the underlying facts.

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A Scandal That Would Not Go Away

It started with a raid. In December 2024, Brazilian labor inspectors descended on a construction site in Camaçari, in the northeastern state of Bahia — the location of BYD's ambitious new electric vehicle factory. What they found shocked investigators.

163 Chinese workers had been brought to Brazil under conditions that authorities condemned as "degrading" and "slavery-like." Workers could not leave their dormitories without permission, were forced to work excessively long hours without regular breaks, and had their passports confiscated and wages withheld.

On the worksite, 600 employees shared only eight poorly maintained toilets. Investigators also uncovered numerous safety violations, including work shifts spanning 25 consecutive days without rest.

The contractor responsible for hiring the workers was Jinjiang Group, a Chinese construction firm and longtime BYD partner. But Brazilian authorities made clear they held BYD ultimately responsible.

What Is the "Dirty List"?

Brazil's Lista Suja — literally the "dirty list" — is an official government registry maintained by the Ministry of Labor. Companies are placed on it when investigators find evidence of workers being subjected to conditions comparable to slavery: forced labor, confiscated documents, debt bondage, or severely degrading living and working conditions.

Firms are only added to the list after all administrative appeal options at the government level are exhausted. Once added, a company stays on the list for two years — unless a court orders its removal.

Being placed on Lista Suja carries serious practical consequences. State development institutions, including BNDES — whose low-interest financing is central to large-scale industrial expansion in Brazil — are restricted from extending loans to listed companies. International banks with ESG (environmental, social, and governance) obligations face similar limitations.

BYD's Response: Settlement, Then Blacklisting Anyway

BYD moved quickly after the 2024 scandal became public. The company condemned the abuses and said it had no prior knowledge of the violations. It terminated its contract with Jinjiang — though it later walked that back — and relocated the affected workers to local hotels.

In December 2025, BYD and its contractors agreed to a settlement under which approximately R$40 million (about US$7.5 million) in damages would be paid, with BYD serving as guarantor. Half of the funds was earmarked for compensation to affected workers; the other half was allocated to labor rights groups and public labor funds.

Despite the settlement, the blacklisting still came. BYD had signed a deal with labor prosecutors over the matter, but not with labor inspectors — and that distinction was ultimately what prevented it from avoiding the registry.

On April 7, 2026, Brazil's Ministry of Labor officially published the updated Lista Suja, adding 169 companies in the semi-annual review. BYD Auto do Brasil Ltda. was included following the conclusion of an administrative process stemming from the December 2024 rescue operation at the Camaçari construction site.

The Court Injunction: A Legal Escape Hatch

Just two days later, on April 9, 2026, a Brazilian court granted BYD a legal injunction, removing the company from the dirty list. The ruling came after BYD filed a legal challenge arguing, among other things, that the settlement it had signed should have been sufficient to prevent inclusion.

The injunction was confirmed in a court document seen by Reuters on Thursday. The details of the legal reasoning have not been fully disclosed, and labor rights advocates are expected to push back against the decision.

A Pattern of Chinese Labor Export?

The BYD case in Brazil is not an isolated incident. The Washington Post reviewed thousands of pages of court records and interviewed over 40 people with direct knowledge of the case. The reporting also highlights that Jinjiang Construction Group has allegedly been sued by workers in China repeatedly over unsafe conditions and unpaid wages — and that China Labor Watch found indicators of forced labor by Jinjiang workers at a BYD factory in Hungary.

The pattern points to a broader issue: Chinese companies expanding aggressively overseas often bring their own construction contractors with them, along with a labor model that can clash severely with international human rights standards. Workers recruited in China are frequently placed in a position of dependency — their documents held, wages withheld, movement restricted.

Critics argue this model is not accidental. It is a deliberate strategy to minimize costs and maintain control over a workforce that has no local legal knowledge and no practical way to seek help.

Big Investments, Political Complications

BYD's Camaçari factory, built on the site of a former Ford plant, was inaugurated in October 2025 with an investment of R$5.5 billion. It focuses on the production of electric and hybrid vehicles and has already produced more than 25,000 cars.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva personally attended the inauguration — a sign of how strategically important Chinese investment has become to his government. Lula has cultivated close ties with Beijing, and BYD's factory was positioned as a flagship project of that relationship.

BYD's Camaçari investment is structured in phases, and the financing required for subsequent expansions would have been materially constrained for the duration of the dirty list placement. The court ruling gives the company breathing room — for now.

Meanwhile, BYD is also pursuing the acquisition of a former Nissan-Mercedes-Benz facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico, with an annual production capacity of around 230,000 vehicles. If that deal succeeds, it would make BYD the dominant force in Latin American EV manufacturing.

What the Court Order Actually Changes — and What It Doesn't

BYD's removal from the Lista Suja means the immediate financial restrictions — particularly the block on bank financing — are lifted pending further legal proceedings. But the underlying facts of the case remain unchanged and uncontested.

Climate Rights International has called on Brazilian authorities to ensure full implementation of the settlement and to investigate ongoing complaints by Brazilian workers at the same facility, who staged demonstrations in December 2025 demanding better sanitation, adequate pay, transportation, and access to drinking water.

The court injunction is a temporary legal mechanism, not an acquittal. The case is far from over — and for the 163 workers who were rescued in 2024, no court order changes what they experienced.

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Sources

1. Reuters – Brazil court removes BYD from list of firms linked to forced labor (April 9, 2026): https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/brazil-court-removes-byd-list-firms-linked-forced-labor-2026-04-09/
2. Agência Brasil – Chinese carmaker BYD added to Brazil's forced labor list: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/direitos-humanos/noticia/2026-04/chinese-carmaker-byd-added-brazils-forced-labor-list
3. CNBC – Brazil puts China's BYD on list of shame for workers' past slavery-like conditions (April 7, 2026): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/07/brazil-puts-chinas-byd-on-list-of-shame-for-workers-past-slavery-like-conditions.html
4. South China Morning Post – Brazil blacklists BYD for slave labour conditions: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3349311/brazil-blacklists-byd-slave-labour-conditions-its-biggest-plant-outside-china
5. Climate Rights International – Brazil: Ensure Implementation of Forced Labor Settlement with BYD (January 9, 2026): https://cri.org/brazil-ensure-implementation-forced-labor-settlement-byd/
6. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre – Brazil: Labour authorities suspend BYD factory construction: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/brazil-labour-authorities-suspend-byd-factory-construction-after-finding-labour-violations-among-chinese-jinjiang-construction-workers-incl-co-comments/
7. Wikipedia – BYD Brazil working conditions controversy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Brazil_working_conditions_controversy
8. Automotive World – BYD added to Brazil's 'dirty list' for labour rights violations: https://www.automotiveworld.com/news/byd-added-to-brazils-dirty-list-for-labour-rights-violations/

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