HOHHOT, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen children have been sent back home or put under care of civil affairs departments, and their employers have been fined in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region as a result of a crackdown on illegal employment over the past month, according to regional labor protection authorities.

    The crackdown campaign, launched in early July following the exposure of the forced labor scandal in the provinces of Shanxi and Henan, raided 1,194 brick kilns, collieries, mining plants and other small workshops across the region, according to the region's Administration of Labor and Social Welfare.

    Labor, commerce and police officials found 17 children aged between 13 to 14 after inspecting the workshops, which employed about 93,000 workers.

    Officials said that the children had volunteered to work.

    The regional labor protection authorities did not say how much their employers were fined.

    The campaign also found employers' violations of arrears in pay, and employment without contracts and social insurances, forcing them to pay more than 184,000 yuan (24,306 U.S. dollars) for delayed wages, sign 1,211 labor contracts and buy securities for more than 20,000 workers.

    No forced labor cases or maltreatment of workers have been found in the crackdown campaign, officials said.