1000 children aged 8-13 years old working in brick kilns in Shanxi
Our China team just sent over this terrible story from the Chinese papers. Be warned its not for the faint hearted…
Following the news stories on the Olympics firm accused of using child labor, the Chinese papers have reported that at least 1000 trafficked children were found working in brick-making factories in Shanxi. The youngest children were only 8 years old, the oldest only 13. The children were locked up after working all day until 10 at night. They did not have water for showers, many had skin diseases. Many were reported to have been severely beaten by the supervisors, some to the point where they had limbs broken, others had been beaten up with hot pods for churning bricks until their backs were burnt deeply.
About 400 parents have signed a petition letter on the internet desperate to seek help. The local media have reported that some parents rescued 40 children, but found that some local police deterred parents from rescuing other children, warning them ‘not to interfere with children of others’ while leaving the children working in the factories. Local police have been accused of being involved in trafficking the children among different brick factories in the region. Other local police were accused of putting money for financing the rescue action into their own pockets.
This sheds light on how deep corruption in the Shanxi area goes.
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