"Volkswagen asks for more time in Brazil human rights probe", 20 June 2022

...Volkswagen asked for more time to review reports alleging human rights violations tantamount to "modern slavery" on a farm it owned in Brazil between 1974-1986...

Public prosecutors summoned Volkswagen to attend an administrative hearing in Brasilia on June 14 to review reports alleging the mistreatment of temporary workers at the farm in Brazil's Amazon region brought forward by the Ministry of Labor...

Ricardo Rezende, a priest and a professor at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, had first gathered testimonials from farm workers before submitting reports of mistreatment to prosecutors in 2019. Brazil's Ministry of Labor then independently investigated the claims, collecting its own testimonials from workers who are still alive, according to the minutes of the June 14 meeting...

A spokesperson for Volkswagen said the carmaker takes the described events at the farm very seriously but that it would not comment further on an ongoing legal investigation.

A second meeting between the carmaker and the working group at Brazil's Public Ministry of Labor was scheduled for Sept. 29...