Ecuador Apologizes to Plantation Workers Who Were Exposed to 'Modern Slavery' Conditions
- Ecuador's government apologized on Saturday to over 300 plantation workers subjected to modern slavery on Japanese-owned abaca plantations in three Pacific coast provinces.
- The apology followed a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling that found Furukawa had kept workers in slave-like conditions over five years and ordered reparations and a public apology.
- In December, workers testified about living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, lacking adequate medical care, and facing significant difficulties while cultivating a natural plant fiber essential for the textile and automotive sectors on nearly 23,000 hectares.
- The court mandated Furukawa pay $120,000 each to 342 victims, totaling around $41 million, but the company claims it lacks funds and calls damages disproportionate.
- The event highlighted government recognition of workers' rights violations and commitments to human dignity, though Furukawa has yet to comply with court orders.
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Pacific workers face 'appalling' housing, fear deportation if they seek medical care, inquiry told
An inquiry into modern slavery has heard harrowing tales of migrant workers living in overcrowded and "unliveable" accommodation, and of injured workers too afraid of deportation to seek medical care.

Ecuador apologizes to plantation workers who were exposed to 'modern slavery' conditions
Ecuador’s government has issued a public apology to a group of plantation workers who were subjected to slave-like conditions according to a a ruling issued last year by Ecuador’s Constitutional Court.
The Ecuadorian state apologized this Saturday with more than 300 victims of modern slavery for making “deaf ears” against the violation of labor rights of a Japanese capital firm on abaca plantations.

Ecuador apologizes to farm workers deemed to live like slaves
Ecuador's government apologized Saturday to some 300 people who worked as farmers for a Japanese textile firm in conditions which a court likened to modern-day slavery.
Public apologies to the more than 300 affected of Furukawa, offers the Government of Ecuador In December 2024, the Constitutional Court declared that in the haciendas of the Japanese company Furukawa in Ecuador there existed a practice analogous to slavery, ordered the payment of 120,000 dollars to each victim and public apologies.In an act [...] La entrada Ecuador The State apologized with the victims of slavery in the Japanese company Furukaw…
The Ecuadorian government on Saturday publicly apologized to more than 300 victims of modern slavery, acknowledging that it had been “turning a deaf ear” for years to the systematic violation of their labor rights by a Japanese company that exploited abaca plantations. In December, the Latin American country’s Constitutional Court ordered textile company Furukawa, which was facing charges of modern “slavery,” to pay a total of $41 million in com…
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