BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- China will launch a
large-scale nationwide investigation on laborers employed in small kilns and
collieries following the exposure of the forced labor scandal in Shanxi
Province.
Lawbreakers that illegally employ children, force
people to work or maliciously injure workers will be severely punished,
according to a state council conference chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao here
Wednesday.
The move comes after the exposure of the brick kiln
scandal in Shanxi Province. Many brick kilns owners in Shanxi Province forced
workers to work 14 to 20 hours a day without payment. Owners of the primitive
brick kilns made use of fierce dogs and thugs who beat children at will.
The investigation group, composed of personnel from
the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Public Security and
the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, made a preliminary report on the
scandal at the conference.
So far about 160 suspects have been detained in
Shanxi and Henan.
By Sunday night, about 45,000 policemen had raided
more than 8,000 kilns and small coal mines in the two provinces and freed 591
workers, including 51 children.
The criminals are suspected not only of illegal
employment practices, but also of abduction, limiting others' freedom, employing
under-age workers and even murder.
The conference said lawbreakers should be severely
punished.
The conference ordered the Shanxi government to step
up investigation of the scandal and compensate the victims.
Yu Youjun, governor of Shanxi Province, made a
self-criticism at the conference on behalf of the Shanxi government.
The conference urged local governments and central
ministries to learn a lesson from the scandal.
BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) -- North China's Shanxi Province
has struck a blow at the root of illegal brick kilns by enacting new rules that
ban cheap bricks, in the wake of the brickwork slavery scandal that has sparked
outrage nationwide.
Solid clay bricks, which are made of clay from arable
land in small kilns at very low cost, have been banned for use in
municipal-level cities from the end of next year and will be replaced by
environment-friendly cinder blocks, announced the Shanxi provincial
government. Full story
BEIJING, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese police are seeking
more than 20 people in connection to the slave labor scandal in north China's
Shanxi Province, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a press
conference on Tuesday that police had detained 30 people in a large-scale rescue
operation of slave laborers in small brick kilns and mines in Shanxi. Full story
HONGTONG, Shanxi Province, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Five
suspects have been arrested for forcing laborers in a north China brick kiln to
do backbreaking manual labor, Xinhua learned Monday afternoon from a central
government work team investigating the case in Shanxi Province.
Kiln boss Wang Bingbing, foreman Heng Tinghan and
hatchet men Zhao Yanbing, Heng Mingyang and Liu Dongsheng. The five have
confessed to the charges, local police said.
Police are searching for three other suspects namely
Zhou Xueping, Chen Zhiming and Jin Xingjian. Full story
HONGTONG, Shanxi, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Police in north
China on Friday announced they had rescued a further 220 slave workers from
brick kilns and other illegal workplaces, such as small iron and coal mines.
The rescues of the workers, all in Shanxi Province,
brings the total number of slave workers reported freed in China to 468 in the
last month. Full story
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