1000 children aged 8-13 years old working in brick kilns in Shanxi

Our China team just sent over this terrible story from the Chinese papers. Be warned its not for the faint hearted…

Following the news stories on the Olympics firm accused of using child labor, the Chinese papers have reported  that at least 1000 trafficked children  were found working in brick-making factories in Shanxi. The youngest children were only 8 years old,  the oldest only 13.  The children were locked up after working all day until 10 at night. They did not have water for showers, many had skin diseases.  Many were reported to have been severely beaten by the supervisors, some to the point where they had limbs broken, others had been beaten up with hot pods for churning bricks until their backs were burnt deeply. 

 

About 400 parents have signed a petition letter on the internet desperate to seek help. The local media have reported that some parents rescued 40 children, but found that some local police deterred parents from rescuing other children, warning them ‘not to interfere with children of others’ while leaving the children working in the factories.  Local police have been accused of being involved in trafficking the children among different brick factories in the region.  Other local police were accused of putting money for financing the rescue action into their own pockets. 

This sheds light on how deep corruption in the Shanxi area goes.  

Unfair labour for the Olympics

The Playfair 2008 coalition released a report on Sunday alleging poor labour conditions in factories making goods for the 2008 Olympics. No Medal for the Olympics on labour rights focuses primarily on child labour, excessive hours and poor wages. The Playfair coalition includes the Clean Clothes Campaign, Intertational Textile Garments and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) and the International Trade Union Conference  

The allegations though extremely worrying, reflect the general situation in China. Campaigners should be congratulated on their dedication to uncovering the issues. Researchers worked in the factories alongside workers to discover what conditions were reallly like. In one factory they found 20 children, some as young as 12, working in their school holidays. In another factory they found forced overtime, fines and pay 65% less than the local minimum wage.

Play Fair 08 are calling on the International Olympic Commitee to ensure labour standards are upheld. Poor standards clearly contradict Olympian values. After similar campaigns around the 2004 Athens Olympics the IOC should have been better prepared this time around.