New York, January 18 (RHC)-- The U.S. meatpacking companies Perdue Farms and JBS will pay $8 million for exploiting immigrant children who worked in their slaughterhouses, after reaching a settlement with the Labor Department. 

The companies came under scrutiny in recent years after a series of reports revealed unaccompanied youth, mostly from Mexico and Central America, were being maimed and burned while working at meat plants, often on the graveyard shift. 

Federal law prohibits children from working in slaughterhouses due to dangerous conditions.  The money will go to the children, as well as organizations that assist them, including Kids in Need of Defense.

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]