Chinese authorities are searching for a factory boss who is believed to have enslaved mentally disabled workers, forcing them to labor long hours without pay, according to Chinese media reports cited by Reuters.
The factory boss, who ran a construction materials operation in China’s western Xinjiang province, is said to have hired about a dozen people in all to grind rocks into powder. But he reportedly did not provide clothing, pay or enough food for the workers, some of whom were enslaved for as long as four years.
The accused boss disappeared before a police raid on the factory Monday morning, and one theory is that he may have fled with the workers to Chengdu city in Sichuan province.
The case follows previous scandals in China involving slave bosses preying on the mentally disabled. In 2007, more than 1,000 people were found working as slaves in brick kilns in Shanxi province. The central government vowed to prevent similar abuse, but cases still are occasionally reported by Chinese media.
Last December, Chinese human traffickers lured mentally disabled people from the southwestern Sichuan province countryside into dangerous employment contracts and sometimes even killed them in mine accidents for compensation.
