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Various media outlets in China including the Southern Metropolitan News, Xinua and Sina (links in Chinese) have been reporting that bonded child labourers have been found being ‘sold like vegetables’ in Shipai, Dongguan.   The working conditions into which they were sold were horrific. The reports allege that:

• There are up to 750 bonded child workers in the Pearl River Delta area.
• Workers as young as 9 years old are sold to factories.
• Young workers are threatened and beaten if they try to escape.
• Child labourers are working over 300 hours a month.
• Hourly rates for young workers are RMB 2.5-3.8 (18p-28p) per hour, with no overtime premiums, no benefits and no weekend rests.

This is the latest in a long line of exposes on the very worst forms of child labour in China.  We at Impactt are finding children in factories more and more often. All too often, shock and lack of information about what to do cause delays in tackling the problem, resulting in children slipping through the net and back into work.  The fate of these lost children has prompted us to develop our draft Child Labour Remediation Guidelines for the industrial context.  These set out some simple steps to for stakeholders to take when children are found in factories with the objective of getting children out of danger and back into school.  We are currently consulting on the guidelines – to give your views please, click here. 

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThere are up to 750 bonded child workers in the Pearl River Delta area. Workers as young as 9 years old are sold to factories. Young workers are threatened and beaten if they try to escape. Child labourers are working over 300 hours a … [...]