China province to ban cheap bricks to fight slavery

BEIJING, June 21 (Reuters) A Chinese province at the centre of a scandal over forced labour at brick kilns will ban the making of cheap bricks -- but not for another 18 months -- in an effort to end the practice, the official Xinhua news agency said.

From the end of next year, cities in northern Shanxi province will no longer be allowed to use solid clay bricks of the kind made cheaply in small kilns, Xinhua reported, citing the provincial government.

The report did not say why the ban would not take effect for another year and a half.

Revelations of hundreds of poor farmers, teenagers and some children lured or forced to work at kilns, mines and foundries in Shanxi and Henan provinces have unfolded over past weeks, outraging citizens and local media.

Local officials and police have been accused of ignoring or even helping the trade in trapped workers, many of whom were taken from around railway or bus stations.

''Our past experiences have shown that dereliction of duty is always behind major accidents. Prosecutors should learn to investigate official negligence when major accidents are exposed by the media,'' Xinhua quoted an unnamed legal official as saying.

Xian city in neighbouring Shaanxi province has closed job agencies near its main railway station that have been accused of recruiting some of the workers, the report added.

By Tuesday, police in Shanxi and in Henan had detained more than 130 people suspected of involvement in the human trafficking and had freed more than 500 workers.

But rural poverty creates conditions where people are still willing to work in the small brickworks, Xinhua quoted another official as saying, ''despite harsh working conditions and meagre wages, because they found it could be hard to land other jobs elsewhere''.

REUTERS LPB RK0920