'Rescued' workers are now homeless
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Mentally disabled people, rescued over the past years from horrifying working conditions as manual laborers in Sichuan Province, have been discovered living on the streets again.
Some of the former workers were found wandering the streets, facing the potential risk of being kidnapped and enslaved once more, with criticism falling primarily on the inadequate performance of welfare agencies, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported Friday.
Concerns over their condition were raised last month after media reported that dozens of mentally disabled workers were rescued after being abused in a sweatshop in Toksun county, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
These workers were sold to a factory in Xinjiang by the manager of a private welfare agency located in Quxian county, Sichuan Province.
Zhang Anqiang, a publicity official at Quxian county, told the Global Times Friday that of the 62 workers rescued in Xinjiang, 35 had been sent back to their hometowns after their identities were verified. The remaining 27 were sent to shelter homes and hospitals.
However, the Oriental Morning Post contrasted this success with the homeless fate of some of the 280 workers rescued in Leibo county, Sichuan Province, in 2009 and 2010.
One of them, Deng Qigui, has resorted to gathering human excrement to be used as fertilizer to earn a living, but has no place to live.
Liu Xingwei, deputy Party secretary of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs in the county, said many mentally disabled workers had been sold for under 3,000 yuan ($455), and been lied to about the working conditions they would face.
