ZHENGZHOU, China - Few police are seen at bustling Zhengzhou train station in
central China, where people traffickers are believed to have abducted young boys
and others for use as slave laborers at brick kilns.
A Chinese migrant worker walks past Zhengzhou train station
in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, Tuesday, June 19, 2007.
[AP]
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There is no shortage of tough-looking men approaching passengers with offers
of work and accommodation, offers that frequently turn out to be a ruse to
entrap people into forced labor.
Uneducated and grindingly poor, China's 200 million migrant workers are among
the most vulnerable to exploitation by phony job offers, and they are easily
picked out by the animal feed or fertilizer bags they carry as improvised
luggage.
The throbbing, chaotic Zhengzhou station and others like it in north-central
China have emerged as links in the slavery scandal that erupted last week,
dominating news reports and prompting President Hu Jintao to personally order an
investigation.
"China's leaders have paid a lot of attention to this," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
Chinese media said the 568 slaves freed in raids last week worked at
kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces that were operating under the protection of
corrupt local officials.
Authorities say 168 people have been arrested, but experts say the true scale
of forced labor could run much deeper.
"The kiln situation is the tip of the iceberg," said June Teufel Dreyer, a
China specialist at the University of Miami. "The problem for Beijing is finding
out how large the submerged part is relative to the tip that shows, and how to
deal with it."
The raids seemed prompted in part by the public stir over an open letter on
the Internet from fathers of missing children. They said officials in both
provinces turned a cold shoulder to their claims that up to 1,000 boys were
enslaved at the kilns.
In discussions in online forums, official media and the academic community,
large numbers of people say the slave kilns underscore the corrosion of good
government and public morality in China.
"This issue is about much more than illegal work practices," the Guangzhou
Daily said in an editorial. "We see more bloody crimes through it, like
kidnapping, abducting, beating, abusing, or even murdering. Behind all of those
crimes, there is the misconduct of local officials."
The freed workers had been sold to kilns for $66 each by gangs that lured
them with false promises of well-paid jobs or just abducted them from transport
hubs or the street.
A number are believed to have died from injury and abuse at the kilns, most
of which are in southern Shanxi province, a mountainous region of coal mines and
hardscrabble farms along a bend in the Yellow River.
Slaves were forced to work 14 hours or more a day hauling bricks, suffering
deep burns and scrapes. When rescued, many were found dazed from exhaustion,
hunger and harsh treatment.
Henan farmer Jiao Tusheng fears his son may have been among the gangs'
victims, although he has had no word on the 17-year-old's fate.
He said his son, Jiao Pingyang, disappeared in February after leaving their
small village of Xitang to go to the bank. After seeing a recent program on
Henan Television about the kiln slavery, Jiao and his wife sold their wheat crop
and came to Zhengzhou seeking information.
"I know it's a hope, but it's all we have," Jiao, 43, said sobbing. "The
Henan and Shanxi police should cooperate more instead of just sitting in their
offices."
Jiao's wife has returned home, but he remains on Zhengzhou's outskirts,
hoping for word alongside other anxious parents while their money dwindles.
About 470 miles south of Beijing, Zhengzhou's job market is a free-for-all.
Walls, billboards and bus shelters around the station are plastered with
stickers and hand-lettered signs advertising jobs at shops, hotels and
restaurants.
Men offering work roam around the station. Most of the touts waved away
attempts to interview them. One man, who wouldn't give his name, said, "I'm here
to help people find jobs and places to live."