Police in Heilongjiang have detained three suspects in Harbin City who allegedly detained 33 men with intellectual disabilities and forced them to do physical labor, according to a local news website.

The alleged leader of the group, surnamed Tan, is still at large, the Heilongjiang News Website said.

Police found a "slaves room" after a 30-year-old man jumped to his death from the seventh floor of a building in Hulan District last Thursday.

Police could not ascertain why or how the man jumped as all the other detained men had mental disabilities, the report added.

Police said the suspects, surnamed Li, Liu, Tan and Men, targeted stragglers or migrant workers with intellectual disabilities at railway stations by luring them to a residential room. They were then forced to work.

The four sent them to nearby construction sites every day and received money from foremen, the report said, citing police.

Officers told the website the victims came from different provinces.

According to the report, Men said the dead man was lured to the room on February 15 from the Harbin Station and had been beaten several times after trying to escape.

Men, 41, a migrant worker from Acheng City, was responsible for guarding the stragglers. He was himself a victim several years ago.

According to police, Men said they gave stragglers two bowels of gruel with rotten pickles every day.

Men claimed that he could not leave because Tan, the boss, had not given him any money, the report added.

The city's government has given money to the victims who wanted to return home and arranged jobs for others who wanted to work in the city, the report said. The government has also sent those with serious mental disabilities to local asylums.

A total of 548 forced laborers, including children, were rescued from brick kilns and small mines in Shanxi Province last year.

The workers were not paid and were forced to work for 15 to 16 hours a day.

(Shanghai Daily, March 20, 2008)