Tale of slave drivers, official apathy and human tragedy

Some of the slave laborers freed by police from a brick kiln in Shanxi's Hongtong county. Li Tingzhen

The slave labor scandal has shocked the nation and caused a public uproar. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have ordered a thorough probe to unearth the facts and punish the guilty. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS) has sent a probe team to Shanxi and Henan, the two provinces where brick kilns and small coal mines forced people, including minors, into backbreaking labor without paying them wages, or providing them enough food or medical care, and thrashing them mercilessly for trying to escape or not working as hard as they were told to.

Members of the Ministry of Public Security and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, too, have joined the MLSS team to ensure that "the guilty don't escape the long hands of the law". Police, on their part, have launched a massive operation to free all slave laborers. By Sunday night, about 45,000 policemen had raided more than 8,000 brick kilns and small coal mines in Shanxi and Henan, and freed 591 of them, including 51 children. They have detained 168 suspects, including kiln and mine owners and managerial-level staff.

The Hongtong county government in Shanxi has announced it will pay the 31 people freed from a kiln in its Caosheng Village a monthly salary of 1,410 yuan ($186) for the period they had worked as slave laborers. It will also pay each of them a compensation of 1,000 yuan ($130), accompanied by a written apology.