China rescues 1,340 forced labourers, arrests 147

BEIJING, Aug 13 (Reuters) Chinese police have rescued 1,340 people from forced labour after a massive brick kiln slave labour scandal came to light in June sparking nationwide outrage.

Of the victims, 367 were mentally handicapped, the official Xinhua news agency said today, quoting Sun Baoshu, a vice minister of labour and social security.

The scandal only came to light after more than 400 parents posted an online petition and turned to reporters for help to find their missing children, many of whom were kidnapped or cheated to be sold to kilns in the northern province of Shanxi.

The victims, including farmers, teenagers and children, were forced to work in scorching kilns, enduring confinement and beatings and kept at bay by dogs as owners tried to maximise production and meet demand from a booming construction industry.

Xinhua said a total of 147 people had been arrested and 98,000 employers ordered to sign contracts with 1.5 million workers and pay overdue salaries and compensation totalling 130 million yuan (17 million US dollars).

Ninety-five Communist Party officials in Shanxi, including two labour officials in Yongji City, had been punished in the wake of the scandal, it said.

''We will show no leniency to (party) cadres who are found to be involved in illegal operations or who act as umbrellas protecting those carrying out illegal acts,'' Sun said.

Last month Zhao Yanbing, who guarded a kiln in Shanxi, was sentenced to death for inflicting a beating that led to the death of a worker who laboured 14-16 hours a day for little or no pay with some 30 workmates.

Twenty-eight others -- owners, managers and enforcers of the brickworks -- were jailed for up to life on charges of forced labour, illegal detention and mayhem.

This month, five courts in Shanxi sentenced a second batch of 31 defendants to prison terms between 18 months and five years.

Since June, police have inspected 277,000 illegal kilns, mines and workshops, said Sun, who heads an investigation group composed of the Labour and Social Security Ministry, the Public Security Ministry and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Xinhua said about 67,000 kilns, mines and workshops inspected nationwide, or 24.2 per cent of the total, operated without licences.

Of 185,000 cases inspected, more than half involved workers employed without contracts, Xinhua said, adding that in 37 per cent of the cases owners failed to provide workers with social security insurance.

Chinese leaders have portrayed themselves as men of the people who care about the have-nots of society in the face of growing protests over widening gaps between rich and poor, between cities and the countryside and between wealthy coastal areas and the impoverished hinterland.

Reuters PD DB2254