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.

In an event held near the presidential palace in Quito, various members of Ecuador’s Cabinet recognized that more than 300 workers of a Japanese-owned abaca plantation were forced to live in conditions of “modern slavery” with Labor Minister Ivone Nuñez 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.

In the ruling, the Constitutional Court 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.