Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 1082 Sun. June 17, 2007  
   
Business


China pledges to free slave labourers


China has pledged to rescue hundreds of people forced to work as slaves in appalling conditions, launching a national probe to find those responsible, state media said Saturday.

A team of investigators will be dispatched to brick yards and coal mines in central and northern China, where more than 500 people -- many of them children -- have been freed in recent days, the state Xinhua news agency reported.

But officials believe hundreds more could be trapped in the work sites in Shanxi and Henan provinces -- victims of a brutal human trafficking ring that targeted children as young as eight.

"The team will find out the truth as soon as possible, and we will go all out to rescue the workers who had been forced to work as slaves in the brick kilns," deputy labour minister Sun Baoshu was quoted as saying.

Police have in recent days raided kilns and mines in both provinces, freeing nearly 550 people in a crackdown launched after distraught parents made an online plea for help in finding their children.

Media reports described workers as having been beaten, were emaciated and forced to work long hours in horrible conditions, apparently with the involvement of some local police and officials.

At least one man was beaten to death.

The scandal has caused alarm among the highest ranks of China's ruling Communist Party, with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issuing orders on Friday to deal with the situation, the China News Service reported.

The ministry of public security has placed a foreman suspected of enslaving workers in Shanxi on its most-wanted list, offering a reward of 20,000 yuan (2,600 dollars) for information leading to his arrest, Xinhua said.

Heng Tinghan, 42, stands accused of forcing people to work in a brick kiln in Shanxi's Hongtong county since March last year.

Tens of thousands of police have raided about 10,000 work sites this week, arresting 120 people in Henan and 38 others in Shanxi on suspicion of kidnapping and forced labour, provincial officials were quoted as saying.

Du Yulin, director of the Shanxi provincial public security bureau, said authorities had been given 10 days to check every brick kiln and coal mine in the area, according to Xinhua.

He warned that local officials would face charges of "dereliction of duty" if they failed to save all workers in danger before the deadline expired.

"It is hard to estimate the number of missing people before the investigation finishes, but there are probably more than 1,000," said an official with the Henan provincial public security department, who gave only his surname Dang.

Many of the labourers were abducted off the streets of cities in the region and sold to factories and mines for as little as 500 yuan, the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper reported.

The scandal adds to other embarrassing revelations this week about the plight of Chinese workers, including reports that children were being used to make merchandise for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.