The recued workers had been working for the Jinjiang Group, one of the companies contracted by the Chinese automotive company Build Your Dreams (BYD), in Camaçari, a municipality in the state of Bahia (northeast).

Sources close to the rescuers indicated that, in the first shelter, the workers slept in beds without mattresses, they did not have closets for their personal belongings, which were mixed with food stuff.

The sanitary situation was particularly critical, with only one bathroom for every 31 workers, forcing them to get up at 04:00 (local time) to queue up and prepare to leave for work at 05:30.

The second shelter, intended mainly for welders, had equally precarious conditions. All the accommodations had serious infrastructure and hygiene problems.

In addition to being inadequate, bathrooms were not separated by sex, did not have adequate toilet seats and had poor hygiene conditions.

The absence of an adequate place to wash clothes led the workers to use their own bathrooms for this purpose.

One of the contractors will appear in a court hearing on the 26th, before the Ministries of Labor and Public Labor.

Some of those rescued remain in an inn, while another group is in a hotel, but will not be able to work and their employment contracts will be terminated.

ied/npg/ocs