"Chinese EV giant BYD faces ‘forced labor’ investigation at Hungary factory", 31 Mar 2026, The World

Findings shared [...] by China Labor Watch (CLW) [...] reveal brutal conditions within BYD’s Szeged facility. Chinese migrant laborers hired to construct the factory [...] have consistently faced excessive hours, seven-day work weeks, withheld wages and fear of retaliation. A CLW report [...] found these practices are “clear indicators of forced labor.”

[...] the factory has brought roughly 4,000 jobs to Szeged, but many of them haven’t gone to Hungarian residents; Chinese migrant laborers, rather, have been flown in [...] on temporary visas to construct the plant at a fraction of the cost of Hungary’s minimum wage. The vast majority of these laborers live on-site in dormitories with roughly 450 residents each, CLW’s report said.

“He told us that he was promised he would return to China after six months of work,” [...] but BYD kept “pushing back that date” due to construction delays. [...] if he left before the work was finished, his wages would be withheld, and he’d have to pay his own airfare and visa fees [...], ostensibly forcing him to continue working in Hungary, according to Lu.

"[...] workers having to put in excessive overtime hours of nine to 10 hours a day,” [...] “But then during the summer months [...] they could be working 12 to 14 hours a day. And there were continuous seven-day work weeks. Some workers were putting in 30, 31 days.”

[...] workers did not receive overtime pay, CLW found. The organization also said 20-30% of laborers’ wages were withheld and deposited into bank accounts in China. If workers tried to leave before the plant wanted them to, they would never receive the money.

[...] workers were instructed to falsify reports of their hours during official inspections and feared retaliation if they spoke out to local authorities. They also lacked access to basic amenities like medical care, because they were not in the country on proper work visas [...].

[...] many of the workers CLW interviewed weren’t employed by BYD directly but by contractors and subcontractors hired by the automaker, making it difficult to lodge a formal complaint about conditions.

BYD did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The World.

One of the subcontractors [...] AIM Construction Hungary KFT, (a subsidiary of China-based Jinjian Construction Group Co., Ltd), was reached by phone. A man who was apparently Hungarian answered but quickly hung up after learning that the call was about allegations of labor law violations.

[...] workers hired by subcontractors like AIM Construction tend to face so-called “recruitment fees” of approximately $1,100-$2,780 for being offered a job. [...].

[...] CLW’s executive director Li Qiang wrote a letter to government officials [...] outlining his organization’s findings and demanding an investigation.

CLW also submitted its findings to the European Commission, European Parliament and Hungarian Commission for Fundamental Rights, none of whom returned requests for comment.

[...] spokesperson for Csongrád-Csanád County’s labor office told The World that local officials are currently conducting an investigation [...].