Brazilian authorities have halted the construction of a factory for Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD, because it found workers living in conditions it deemed similar to "slavery."

According to BBC News, a statement from the Public Labor Prosecutor's Office (MPT) said that more than 160 workers in Brazil's northeastern state of Bahia were put in a "degrading" environment and had their passports and salaries withheld by a building company.

BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, and one of the world's largest EV makers, said in a statement that it had moved affected workers to hotels, and had cut ties with the firm involved -- Jinjiang Construction Brazil. The factory was scheduled to be operational by March 2025, and was set to be BYD's first EV plant outside of Asia.

BYD has been expanding its foothold in Brazil, which is its largest overseas market by a wide margin. It first opened a factory in São Paulo in 2015, making chassis for electric buses.

The news comes only a week after South Korean automaker Hyundai in the U.S. said it had dismissed dozens of incarcerated men it had employed through the Alabama Department of Corrections and ended its inmate labor contract with the state, after a New York Times report raised concerns that the company was benefitting from a modern form of the “convict-leasing” forced labor programs of the Jim Crow era.