News
Workers stranded in Russia to be freed
By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-04 13:55
More than 30 laborers are expected to return to China after being stranded in Russia for more than four months following a contract dispute.
Jin Weidong, the manager of a Beijing furniture company that allegedly recruited the workers, left Beijing yesterday to negotiate with the Russian company for the men's release .
Families of the workers said the men have little money to buy food and that some have fallen ill since they left Beijing on July 25.
They have been unable to leave the country because the Russian company is refusing to return their passports.
Before leaving Beijing yesterday, Jin denied he was responsible for the men and said he only introduced the workers to the Russian company.
"The two sides contacted each other directly, and their problems have nothing to do with me," he told METRO.
Meanwhile, distraught family members have traveled to Beijing to wait for news.
This follows a deal negotiated at a police station on Monday, in which it was agreed Jin would travel to Russia to ensure the workers' release. However, the workers first have to pay the Russian company 500,000 rubles ($17,000).
The workers believe Jin is to blame for their problems. They said Jin's company hired them and promised each a salary of 6,700 yuan per month, plus food and accommodation for work in Russia.
However, when they arrived in Russia they were handed over to a second company and they had the wrong work documents, the workers said. Jia Haiyuan, a worker who was scheduled to go with a second group of laborers to Russia next spring, said Jin's company cheated the workers because they had the wrong work documents.
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"They were given travel visas and not working permits. In addition, they did not sign formal working contracts and only signed simple work agreements.
Jia said the men were told they would perform indoor decoration work, but when they arrived in Russia they learned it was dangerous exterior wall work.
Among the workers, about 20 are from Jiangsu province, eight are from Hubei and two from Hebei.
Du Xiaolan, the wife of Liu Zhenhua, a worker from Tuanfeng county, Hubei, said she had received a text message from her husband which said they were eating nothing but instant noodles.
The message also said some men were sick.
Du claimed that the manager of the Russian company was a Chinese man, and had been very cruel to the workers.
"He slapped one of them when my husband and others complained, and he blackmailed them into signing a kind of illegal contract but they all refused," she alleged.
Xiao Hua, deputy chief of the Tuanfeng county's commerce bureau, said overseas work can be very risky and people should be cautious.
"They should go through legal channels or turn to authoritative companies so that their rights can be protected, and people holding travel visas are not allowed to work overseas," said Xiao.
