"First of all, the asylum has no right to sign for its members," he said. "The move equals selling people like goods."

"Besides, mentally ill people need custodians to sign for them," he added.

The brick kiln scandal in Shanxi shocked China in 2007 when 32 people were found to have been enslaved from March to late May of that year. One person died and 18 suffered injuries as a result of their work conditions.

An official with the Workers Union of Shanxi, who only revealed his surname as Liang, noted that after the scandal in Shanxi such incidents occurred again, which showed many loopholes existed in the employment and supervision system. He called for stepping up inspection of the legitimacy of enterprises.

"In some remote and impoverished rural areas, small factories and workshops were seldom checked and the problem is especially serious," Liang added. He suggested a thorough inspection be launched in China to uproot illegal factories."Some officials who dared to act as protecting umbrellas should be severely punished so that others wouldn't follow suit," he added.