Beijing:
Chinese authorities claim to have rescued a group of what they describe as "mentally ill workers enslaved in a factory" after being sold by a man who purportedly ran a beggars' shelter, state media reported on Wednesday.
Photographs broadcast on Sichuan TV showed images of the workers that were allegedly held in the construction factory.
Twelve workers, including eight who the officials claimed to be mentally ill, were sold to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory to work without pay, Sichuan TV said.
Chinese authorities claim that workers purportedly mentally ill were given the same food as the factory leader's dogs.
The workers were given no protective gear and forced to work in the bitter winter when other factories suspended operations.
Police on Tuesday arrested Li Xinglin, the head of the building materials factory in the far-western Xinjiang region who had fled on Sunday after Chinese media reports exposed the plant's working conditions, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
His son, Li Chenglong, was also arrested in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, while the 12 purportedly mentally ill workers who he had taken with him, were placed in government custody.
At a news briefing in Xinjiang, local officials from Toksun County said they had arrested Li Xinglin and his son.
"At 1600 this afternoon, police have arrested Li Xinglin and his son, who is suspected of illegally forcing the disabled to work at Jiaersi factory, and they have rescued 12 mentally ill workers," Yang Jin, Vice executive leader for Toksun county, Xinjiang Province said.
Meanwhile, shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan was detained on Monday.
Sichuan TV filmed the bunk beds in Zeng's shelter in Dazhou, Sichuan Province.
Zeng was accused of selling people who lived in his shelter to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory in Toksun county.
Zeng Guohua, the brother of shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan, said the shelter had been approved by the government.
He showed Sichuan TV what he claimed was the documentation for the shelter.
China has had other cases of mentally disabled people being abused as labourers.
In May 2009, police in the eastern province of Anhui arrested 10 men for allegedly enslaving more than 30 mentally handicapped people who were forced to work at brick kilns.
Hundreds of brick kiln slaves, many of them handicapped, were freed in raids in 2007 in northern China.
Photographs broadcast on Sichuan TV showed images of the workers that were allegedly held in the construction factory.
Twelve workers, including eight who the officials claimed to be mentally ill, were sold to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory to work without pay, Sichuan TV said.
Chinese authorities claim that workers purportedly mentally ill were given the same food as the factory leader's dogs.
The workers were given no protective gear and forced to work in the bitter winter when other factories suspended operations.
Police on Tuesday arrested Li Xinglin, the head of the building materials factory in the far-western Xinjiang region who had fled on Sunday after Chinese media reports exposed the plant's working conditions, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
His son, Li Chenglong, was also arrested in Chengdu, capital of southwestern Sichuan province, while the 12 purportedly mentally ill workers who he had taken with him, were placed in government custody.
At a news briefing in Xinjiang, local officials from Toksun County said they had arrested Li Xinglin and his son.
"At 1600 this afternoon, police have arrested Li Xinglin and his son, who is suspected of illegally forcing the disabled to work at Jiaersi factory, and they have rescued 12 mentally ill workers," Yang Jin, Vice executive leader for Toksun county, Xinjiang Province said.
Meanwhile, shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan was detained on Monday.
Sichuan TV filmed the bunk beds in Zeng's shelter in Dazhou, Sichuan Province.
Zeng was accused of selling people who lived in his shelter to the Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory in Toksun county.
Zeng Guohua, the brother of shelter owner, Zeng Lingquan, said the shelter had been approved by the government.
He showed Sichuan TV what he claimed was the documentation for the shelter.
China has had other cases of mentally disabled people being abused as labourers.
In May 2009, police in the eastern province of Anhui arrested 10 men for allegedly enslaving more than 30 mentally handicapped people who were forced to work at brick kilns.
Hundreds of brick kiln slaves, many of them handicapped, were freed in raids in 2007 in northern China.
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