Brazil’s Labor Ministry is accusing a construction company contracted to getting the largest city ready for the World Cup of forcing more than one hundred men to work in slave-like conditions.

The workers were lured from their homes in the poorer states in Brazil’s northeast, to work for A$670 a month on the Sao Paulo International Airport expansion project.  Some had to pay more than $235 to secure a job.  But when they got to the job site, work wasn’t immediately available and they had to stay in one of 11 makeshift camps near the airport.

Prosecutors say they found the workers living in “conditions analogue to slaves,” and they have a month to draw up legal action against the contractors.  According to Brazilian law, companies must contract migrant workers in their hometown before transferring them to other cities.

Similar investigations were under way in other World Cup-related building sites around the country.