China's migrant workers face "widespread abuse"

BEIJING, March 1 (Reuters) China's millions of poor migrant workers face widespread, institutionalised discrimination and abuse of their human rights and the government is not doing enough to protect them, Amnesty International said today.

An estimated 200 million migrant workers -- who in recent years have flocked from the vast, poor countryside to the booming cities -- often lacked proper health care, may have their pay withheld and were vulnerable to exploitation, the report said.

''China's so-called economic 'miracle' comes at a terrible human cost -- rural migrants living in the cities experience some of the worst abuse in the work place,'' said Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.

''They are forced to work long stretches of overtime, often denied time off even when sick, and labour under hazardous conditions for paltry wages,'' she added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry today said there were ''undeniable abuses in some places and sectors'' during the country's rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.

But spokesman Qin Gang dismissed Baber's ''terrible human cost'' comment as ''unprofessional'' and ''unfounded''.

''China's economic achievement can be attributed to finding of a correct path of development, our pressing ahead with reforms and the Chinese people's hard work and wisdom,'' he told a news briefing.

The root of the problems is China's residence permit, or ''hukou'', system, Amnesty said, as many workers are denied their legal rights because they lack the proper documents to work in places outside their registered home towns.

''While they have served as the back-bone labourers fuelling China's economic take-off, the majority of internal migrants never gain permanent residency in urban areas,'' the report said.

''Having built China's modern, gleaming, metropolises the majority eventually return to the countryside, having served and then been sent away from urban centres of privilege,'' it added.

The Amnesty report cited cases of migrant worker abuse, including that of a 21-year-old woman surnamed Zhang in the southern city of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong.

''We worked overtime every day and the earliest we would get off of work would be around 11 p.m. Sometimes we would work until two or three in the morning, and we would have to work the next day as usual,'' she was quoted as saying.

''The best day was Sunday when we only had to work overtime until 9:30. Really, we were exhausted. Some even fainted, because they were so tired.'' It quoted other workers talking about their experiences falling sick, adding that some people got so desperate and had so little money they performed minor surgery on themselves.

''Once I was really sick, but the work schedule was very tight. I was very sick and almost in a coma, but I was only in the hospital for half a day and got one shot, and I had to return to work after that,'' one unnamed worker was quoted as saying.

And children of migrant workers were often excluded from school, or forced to pay extra fees because they lack urban residence permits.

''These millions of children are China's future: the government must allow them an education,'' Baber said.

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