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Xi'an, a major city in northwest China, has permanently closed job agencies around its railway station that were allegedly deceiving rural workers and sending them to work as "slaves" in illegal brick kilns in neighboring Shanxi Province.

The local authorities had instead set up a consultation center to provide information for job-seekers, said Meng Zhe, director of Xi'an Railway Station Square Administration.

All the 13 job agencies around the railway station were operating without licenses during a government inspection on Tuesday, said Meng.

"We will not allow any other job agency to open near the railway station in future," he said.

The move in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, came after police arrested 168 people accused of keeping workers in appalling conditions at small brick kilns and mines in Shanxi and Henan provinces.

By Saturday, 315 people -- including 22 aged under 18 -- had been freed after police raided more than 3,700 small brick kilns and collieries in the coal-rich Shanxi, many of which were unlicensed.

Meanwhile, police in Henan had freed 217 forced laborers, including 29 juveniles and 10 mentally handicapped people.

Many of the rescued said they were deceived soon after getting off the train and starting to look for jobs at job agencies around railway stations, according to media reports.

The slave labor scandal hit the headlines after a "call for help" letter was posted on the Internet earlier this month by more than 400 parents in Henan who believed their missing children had been sold to the small brick kilns as slave workers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2007)