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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Grace Livingstone and Matheus Faustino

Brazil may sue VW amid claims firm used ‘slave labour’ under military rule

A man on horseback with a herd of cattle on a gate with the VW logo in 1978.
Men working on a VW-owned cattle ranch in Pará were allegedly subject to ‘grave violations of human rights’. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy

Brazil is threatening to take the German carmaker Volkswagen to court over allegations that it used slave labour on a vast ranch in the Amazon, after talks on compensating workers ended without agreement.

Public prosecutors in Brazil are seeking compensation for men who they say were forced to work in “humiliating and degrading” conditions, with no clean water or sanitation, on the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch, which was owned by the company in the northern Pará state, between 1973 and 1987.

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