5 detained as mentally retarded workers freed
By Li Qian |
December 4, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FIVE people who abducted mentally retarded people and forced them to work at a car wash in north China's Tianjin City have been detained, police said.
The workers didn't get the handsome pay they were promised. Instead, they were fed leftovers and always beaten up when they were confined to the shop, the Beijing News reported yesterday.
Wu Fabing, a slightly retarded 31-year-old, had hundreds of cigarette burns on his legs, arms and abdomen. During the two-month ordeal, he "was lashed by belts, struck by sticks and beaten by fists," and was forced to eat what the managers left behind and smoke cigarette ends.
Sitting motionless on a chair, he just spitted out a single word: "Painful."
Wu was driven to the store on an early August day. One month later, he only received 100 yuan (US$16.06) rather than the 3,500 yuan promised, but he could buy a SIM card with it and he called his brother Wu Jianbing.
On October 3, the anxious brother tracked down the store and saved Wu. But he failed to get back his brother's identification card and overdue salaries, the paper said.
Another captive, 32-year-old Lu Shilun, begged them to take him along, too. He said he was separated from his father at Shenyang Railway Station in northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 22 and then was sent to a local homeless shelter where he got train tickets and came to Tianjin.
The suspects rounded up the laborers at the railway station. They were forced to work at least 12 hours a day and were banned from going out. Most of them got no pay.
Tianjin police launched a raid on November 21 and rescued 11 workers, aged between 20 and 30, most from Hebei and Henan provinces. The car wash was also shut down.
Under state laws, people using forced labor face a maximum jail term of 10 years.
China has seen several slavery scandals. Last year, 16 mentally disabled beggars were freed from a factory in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
The workers didn't get the handsome pay they were promised. Instead, they were fed leftovers and always beaten up when they were confined to the shop, the Beijing News reported yesterday.
Wu Fabing, a slightly retarded 31-year-old, had hundreds of cigarette burns on his legs, arms and abdomen. During the two-month ordeal, he "was lashed by belts, struck by sticks and beaten by fists," and was forced to eat what the managers left behind and smoke cigarette ends.
Sitting motionless on a chair, he just spitted out a single word: "Painful."
Wu was driven to the store on an early August day. One month later, he only received 100 yuan (US$16.06) rather than the 3,500 yuan promised, but he could buy a SIM card with it and he called his brother Wu Jianbing.
On October 3, the anxious brother tracked down the store and saved Wu. But he failed to get back his brother's identification card and overdue salaries, the paper said.
Another captive, 32-year-old Lu Shilun, begged them to take him along, too. He said he was separated from his father at Shenyang Railway Station in northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 22 and then was sent to a local homeless shelter where he got train tickets and came to Tianjin.
The suspects rounded up the laborers at the railway station. They were forced to work at least 12 hours a day and were banned from going out. Most of them got no pay.
Tianjin police launched a raid on November 21 and rescued 11 workers, aged between 20 and 30, most from Hebei and Henan provinces. The car wash was also shut down.
Under state laws, people using forced labor face a maximum jail term of 10 years.
China has seen several slavery scandals. Last year, 16 mentally disabled beggars were freed from a factory in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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