More than 40 years after they were subjected to forced labor on a cattle ranch in the Brazilian Amazon, four survivors have won a historic legal victory against Volkswagen’s Brazilian subsidiary. A court in Pará state ordered the company to pay each survivor two million reais (about $390,000) in damages. The ruling marks the largest individual compensation award for forced labor ever granted in Brazil.

“We were just kids”—justice after four decades

Raimundo Batista de Souza was a teenager when he and his brothers were recruited to work on the ranch during the 1980s. But in a familiar bait and switch, what was presented as an opportunity quickly became a nightmare. Souza recalls workers becoming trapped in a system of debt bondage, forced to clear forest land while accumulating debts they could never repay. Now the four remaining survivors have finally won a landmark ruling. In fact, the largest financial compensation for forced labor ever ordered in Brazil.

Andréia Silverio of Coletivo Veredas, the group of grassroots lawyers who represented the plaintiffs told El Pais:

It is a very important precedent because it establishes that this crime does not expire (and) the state has the duty to pursue these crimes and hold those who profited from slave labor accountable.

The case follows years of advocacy by survivors, lawyers, and Father Ricardo Rezende, the Catholic priest whose investigation helped expose the abuses. His efforts were instrumental in documenting the exploitation and preserving evidence long after the crimes occurred. It is hoped the ruling will open the door to new lawsuits.

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