Child slaves found in China's brick factories | International News | News | Telegraph

Child slaves found in China's brick factories | International News | News | Telegraph: "Hundreds of Chinese children have been kidnapped and forced to work as slaves in brutal conditions.

President Hu Jintao and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, have intervened to call for urgent efforts to trace hundreds more boys and young men who are still feared missing despite raids on brick factories across north and central areas of the country.

The reports of children being abducted, locked in factories for years, beaten, left untreated for severe burns and, in some cases, killed spread this week from a single case in Shanxi province to implicate hundreds of kilns.

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It took a campaign by parents, who in some cases led raids to rescue their children themselves, before official action was taken. They say at least 1,000 children, as well as adults, have been abducted.

Reporters have alleged that collusion between the kiln owners and local officials blocked intervention. In the first case discovered, the owner was the son of the local Communist Party boss.

In that first case, a group of labourers were found after being locked in a factory for years and forced to live off bread and water. One was reported to have been killed."