In Search of the Missing Kiln Workers – Joel Martinsen

Reports concerning forced labor at brick kilns in Shanxi province have disappeared from the Western media in recent weeks, but the case is not yet resolved. As Danwei reports, journalists and netizens in China are helping to track down people still missing who are suspected of having been forced to work in the kilns. From Danwei:

Jdm070804KilnTwo weeks ago, Southern Metropolis Weekly ran an extensive cover feature on the men who had been forced to work in illegal brick kilns in Shanxi Province.

Part of that feature was a list of the names of 137 former kiln slaves; the paper attempted to confirm their addresses and current status. Thirty-one names were released by the government of Hongdong County after the earliest kiln-bust, but the whereabouts of many of those rescued were unclear and much of the information on the list was incorrect. Other names were provided by a Shaanxi legal team suing for back wages, and the paper also looked into the seventy names listed by the parents in Henan whose search efforts spurred the government investigation. [Full text]



[Image: Missing kiln workers Feng Jianwei and Shi Guoqiang, via Danwei]

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