CAMACARI, Brazil (AP) — Dozens of Chinese workers found by authorities in poor condition at a construction site in Brazil for electric vehicle automaker BYD have been taken and placed in hotels in the country's tropical northeast region.
Local prosecutors alleged that the laborers are victims of human trafficking who were living in “slavery-like conditions” under contractor Jinjiang Group, but offered no evidence to back up their claims.
It's unclear if the Chinese workers were in Brazil without proper papers and working permits. The Bahia state Labor Prosecutor’s Office could not comment when reached by The Associated Press, saying an investigation was underway.
The prosecutor’s office revealed on Monday the discovery of the 163 workers and their circumstances, and urged the company to place them at local hotels in Camacari, a city of 300,000 residents located about 1,600 kilometers (997 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro.
A video from the prosecutor’s office showed dorms belonging to the construction site, with beds without mattresses and rudimentary cooking facilities.
The Chinese automaker BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is one of the world’s largest producers of electric cars. Earlier this week, it said it would “immediately terminate the contract” with the contractor and was “studying other appropriate measures.”
BYD did not reply to a request from The Associated Press for comment and it was not immediately clear if Brazilian prosecutors had raised charges in the case.
But in a statement posted on Thursday, BYD said it objected to reports about poor conditions at the site in Brazil, where it is building a factory, saying the allegations were a smearing campaign aimed at China and Chinese brands.
The facilities where the Chinese workers were found is expected to start production next year.
On Friday, local residents in Camacari said many of the Chinese workers had come and already left the town. Their whereabouts were not clear and it was also unknown who was handling them at this point.
FILE - The BYD logo is photographed at the Paris Auto Show in Paris, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
LONDON (AP) — Olivia Hussey, the actor who starred as a teenage Juliet in the 1968 film “Romeo and Juliet,” has died, her family said on social media Saturday. She was 73.
Hussey died on Friday, “peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones,” a statement posted to her Instagram account said.
Hussey was 15 when director Franco Zeffirelli cast her in his adaptation of the William Shakespeare tragedy after spotting her onstage in the play “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," which also starred Vanessa Redgrave.
“Romeo and Juliet” won two Oscars and Hussey won a Golden Globe for best new actress for her part as Juliet, opposite British actor Leonard Whiting, who was 16 at the time.
Decades later Hussey and Whiting brought a lawsuit against Paramount Pictures alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over nude scenes in the film.
They alleged that they were initially told they would wear flesh-colored undergarments in a bedroom scene, but on the day of the shoot Zeffirelli told the pair they would wear only body makeup and that the camera would be positioned in a way that would not show nudity. They alleged they were filmed in the nude without their knowledge.
The case was dismissed by a Los Angeles County judge in 2023, who found their depiction could not be considered child pornography and the pair filed their claim too late.
Hussey was born on April 17, 1951, in Bueno Aires, Argentina, and moved to London as a child.
She also starred as Mary, mother of Jesus, in the 1977 television series “Jesus of Nazareth," and in the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile.”
She is survived by her husband, David Glen Eisley, her three children and a grandson.
FILE - Leonard Whiting, left, and Olivia Hussey arrive at the screening of "The Producers" at the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival Opening Night at the TCL Chinese Theatre on April 26, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actress Olivia Hussey smiles as she appears at the Japan premiere of her latest film "Mother Teresa of Calcutta" in Tokyo Wednesday, June 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)
FILE - "Romeo and Juliette" movie director Franco Zeffirelli, left, actors Olivia Hussey, center, and Leonard Whiting are seen after the Parisian premiere of the film in Paris on Sept. 25, 1968. (AP Photo/Eustache Cardenas, File)
