President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese leaders ordered an investigation into reported incidents of slave labor at small coal and iron mines and brick kilns, after a group of fathers appealed in an open letter for help in tracking down their missing sons, believed to have been sold into slavery to kiln bosses.
The letter claimed that some 1,000 children, some as young as eight, were forced to work more than 14 hours a day with no pay at kilns in the northern provinces of Henan and Shanxi, and were often beaten and starved by their bosses.
According to the state news agency Xinhua and China Central Television, a total of 217 slave laborers, including 29 youths, were released following recent police raids in the Henan province, and another 251 workers were freed in Shanxi, including 80 boys.
Henan police have reported arresting 120 kiln owners and supervisors while in Shanxi, 38 people suspected of exploitation were reportedly detained. They are said to have used both local workers, recruited with false promises of wages, and migrants bought from human traffickers.
