Brick Kiln Slavery Exposed in Northern China

Brick Kiln Slavery Exposed in Northern China
2010-06-02 11:31

n China's northern Hebei province, a man escaped from a brick kiln factory on May 18th. He and dozens of others had been forced to work here as slaves, a local newspaper reported.

The man, Mr. Song from Shanxi province, alerted the police—who then raided the factory a few days later.

Police discovered another 33 migrant workers who were forced to work 14 to 18 hours a day for no pay. They were monitored constantly, deprived of sleep, beaten, intimidated and given electric shocks if they protested, according to the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily.

Police arrested 11 people for the abuses, including the owners and the foreman of the factory.

A similar slavery scandal was exposed in 2007 in Henan and Shanxi provinces, where thousands of people were forced to work in brick kilns on near-starvation diets and beaten regularly.

Many of the brick kiln workers from the impoverished countryside were mentally disabled. Some Chinese traffickers deliberately lured them into dangerous employment contracts, some media reported last year.

Local officials had vowed to crack down on such illegal operations. But since then, occasional media reports have shown the brutal violations continue—sometimes involving teenagers who left home looking for work, and ended up as slaves.

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