Enlarge image
Freshly produced VW cars on their way through Brazil
Photo: Mauricio Lima / AFP
In the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, a hearing has begun on possible slave labor by a Volkswagen subsidiary, which could cost the Wolfsburg-based group dearly.
The prosecutors who investigated the allegations of forced labor against Volkswagen during the dictatorship in Brazil are expecting compensation payments from the German group.
"We are confident that at the end of the trial we will receive adequate redress for the serious human rights violations that took place at the ranch," prosecutor Rafael Garcia said on Tuesday after the first hearing at a labor court in Brasilia.
The events are said to have taken place on an Amazon farm owned by a subsidiary of Volkswagen do Brasil in the 1970s and 1980s.
Investigators presented the company representatives with a 90-page dossier with testimonies behind closed doors at the hearing, Garcia said.
The evidence "shows that the workers were in a slave-like situation," said the prosecutor, who holds Volkswagen "directly responsible" for the human rights abuses.
"What happened on the fazenda represents serious human rights violations, also because slave labor was used," the prosecutor said.
»Since it was owned by Volkswagen, the company is also responsible for it.«
It should now also be about any compensation for the workers on the farm and for Brazilian society.
Volkswagen had asked for a deadline for a statement and would like to comment in writing in September.
"We can assure you that we take the events described on the Fazenda Rio Cristalino very seriously," a VW spokesman said recently.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the victims were people who had been hired as day laborers and temporary workers for deforestation work on a property that would later become one of the largest cattle farms in the Amazon region - operated on behalf of a subsidiary of the Wolfsburg group.
"A worker tried to escape but was captured."
According to witnesses, armed guards were tasked with guarding thousands of workers.
'A worker tried to escape but was captured.
To punish him, they kidnapped his wife and raped her,” the investigative report said.
'Another worker who tried to escape was shot in the leg.
Another was tied up naked.”
The workers were kept in “debt bondage” and had to spend their entire wages on buying food at inflated prices.
Some died of malaria without access to medical care.
According to the report, the crimes were overseen by VW managers, including at least one German.
Catholic priest Ricardo Rezende had been collecting evidence of the atrocities since 1977 and finally handed it over to prosecutors three years ago.
"You can't remedy the suffering of a person who is being tortured by paying reparations," the 70-year-old priest told the AFP news agency.
'But there can be a symbolic redemption.
And I think it's necessary."
According to the investigator, the "Fazenda Volkswagen" was one of the largest companies in the rural Amazon region, and the car company wanted to get into the meat business at the time.
The farm was around 1390 square kilometers and had around 300 workers.
It was founded in the 1970s and supported by the Brazilian military dictatorship.
The temporary workers responsible for the clearing, to whom the allegation of slave labor mainly relates, were not directly employed by the subsidiary.
The investigation is not the first allegation against VW in Brazil.
In July 2017, research by NDR, SWR and »SZ« showed that the company was actively involved in the persecution and suppression of opponents of the regime on the factory premises near São Paulo during the dictatorship.
In 2020, VW paid 36 million real (5.5 million euros) in compensation to family members of employees who were tortured and killed during the military dictatorship.
kig/dpa/AFP