Over 30 people freed from slavery in east China
12:49, 22 May 2009
BEIJING. May 22. KAZINFORM. A total of 32 mentally ill people have been freed from two brick kilns in eastern China where they were held as slaves and forced to work more than 12 hours a day, national media reported on Friday; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
The slaves, aged from 25 to 45, were often beaten, Xinhua news agency said, adding that Anhui Province authorities had arrested 10 suspects in connection with the case.
The incident comes two years after a similar scandal in northern China's Shanxi Province where about 1,500 people, most of them mentally ill, were rescued from labor in brick kilns; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.