Begging gang slaves ‘let down by authorities’
Print Edition
POLICE and officials in southern city Dongguan have been accused of failing thousands of people enslaved and mutilated by beggar gang bosses.
Gangs abduct children, smashing arms and legs and drugging them, while kidnapped adults have had their limbs hacked off, according to a report on Phoenix Satellite Television.
Then they are sent out to beg under threat of violence or reduced rations.
There are said to be about 3,000 beggars in the Guangdong Province city in gangs run by bosses from eastern province Anhui and central China’s Henan Province.
The director of Dongguan Civil Affairs Bureau, Yang Dongru, said the authority did not know about the incidents reported and that police will step up efforts to help beggars and crack down on gangs.
But former Dongguan beggar Wang Xiuyong, who has returned to his hometown in the eastern province of Shandong, accused the authorities of shirking their responsibilities.
Wang said he informed police in Shijie Town of abuses, who told him to speak to civil affairs officials. In turn, they told him to inform homeless hostels.
“Basically, none of them wanted to take responsibility,” Wang said.
Wang gave a harrowing account of the life of a beggar in Dongguan.
He said beggars lived in caravans, often on remote construction sites, and frequently worked from 5am until 2am.
Most beggars bring in about 20 yuan (US$3.2) a day but some could get 200 yuan, it was reported.
Wang said gangs kidnapped children and to gain sympathy when begging would break their limbs.
“I saw once a gang leader smash a one-year-old’s leg with bricks. His leg became infected as he received no medical treatment,” Wang said.
Toddlers were also fed sleeping pills to prevent them calling for help.
Usually, the children would die very young. Once they became weak, they would be left at the roadside, Wang said.
Adults also received horrific treatment, the program reported.
It told of how Lu Jianqiu, a native in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, went missing in 2000.
Everyone thought him dead, but one evening 10 years later on a lonely road, his cousin, Lu Xiaoyan, was shocked when a beggar called out her nickname.
“I asked who he was and he replied, ‘I’m your cousin,’” Lu Xiaoyan said.
She said Lu Jianqiu was unrecognizable, with long hair and his right arm and the lower part of his legs missing.
Lu Jianqiu told her he had been abducted while going to visit his girlfriend. When he woke up, he felt intense pain from the amputations.
He was kept in a darkened room for a year, then sent begging.
Lu Jianqiu told his cousin he knew he had been held for 10 years, as he had eaten chicken 10 times during his captivity.
Beggars were only given chicken as a New Year “treat,” surviving on steamed buns the rest of the time.
As the cousins talked, gang members arrived and took Lu Jianqiu away. Despite searches, he has not been seen since.
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