ECUADOR’S government issued a public apology to a group of plantation workers on Saturday, after the country’s constitutional court ruled last year that they were subjected to slave-like conditions.

In an event held near the presidential palace in Quito, various members of Ecuador’s cabinet recognised that more than 300 workers of a Japanese-owned abaca plantation were forced to live in conditions of “modern slavery,” with labour minister Ivone Nunez pledging that Ecuador will strive to “build a state that guarantees the human rights of workers.”

The apology issued by government officials is one of the reparation measures ordered by the court last year, which determined that between 1963 and 2019 workers of the Japanese company Furukawa were forced to live in dormitories without basic services at a plantation in western Ecuador, where accidents were common due to the lack of safety training.

Former employees of Furukawa attended Saturday’s ceremony along with their lawyers, who have accused the company of not paying reparations to workers affected by the harsh conditions at its plantation in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas province.

The company changed owners in 2014, and has said that conditions have changed since then. Furukawa has also asked Ecuador’s government to lift a ban on the sale of its properties in Ecuador so that it can pay reparations to workers.

Ecuador is among a handful of countries that produces large quantities of abaca, also known as manila hemp, which is used to make speciality papers, ropes and fishing nets.

Furukawa representatives were not immediately available for comment.