Chinese police have detained 168 people in the large-scale
operation to rescue slave laborers in small brick kilns and mines
in central China's Shanxi and Henan provinces.
Forty-eight people who were allegedly to have been involved in
the illegal use of slave labors were detained in Shanxi, while the
others were detained in Henan, according to local police
sources.
By Saturday, 351 people, including 22 under the age of 18, were
freed after police stormed more than 3,700 small brick kilns and
coal mines, many of them are unlicensed, in Shanxi, the country's
biggest coal producer.
Heng Tinghan, a 42-year-old foreman of a brick kiln in Caosheng
Village, Hongtong county in Shanxi was arrested in Danjiangkou,
Hubei Province Saturday evening after the Ministry of Public
Security issued a wanted list of the second-highest importance for
him.
Heng was suspected of forcing people to work as slaves in his
brick kiln since March 2006, among whom one died and 20 were
injured under the extremely cruel working conditions.
Wang Bingbing, the kiln owner, and four taskmasters have been
detained. His father, Party branch secretary of the village, is
being investigated together with a few county-level officials.
Police are also hunting for two other suspects.
In central China's agricultural province of Henan, a major
source of salve workers, police have detained 120 suspects in the
campaign.
Police have freed 217 forced workers, including 29 aged under 18
and ten mentally-handicapped persons, according to Henan provincial
public security bureau.
Five gangs involved in organizing salve workers for the brick
kilns, in Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, have been busted and their
13 members were arrested.
The use of slave workers came under spotlight after an open
"call-for-help" letter posted on the Internet earlier this month by
more than 400 parents in Henan who believed their missing children
have been sold to the small brick kilns as slave workers.
(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2007)