Shandong Forced Labour Camp Reaps Huge Profits by Enslaving Falun Gong Practitioners

In order to profit from slave labour, the Shandong No. 1 Women's Forced Labour Camp has partnered with several factories in preparing items for export, including bedspreads, plastic cement bags and fashion logo labels sewn onto final products. Falun Gong practitioners have been enslaved in a terrible work environment and suffer both physically and mentally.

Falun Gong practitioners in the No. 5 Brigade have suffered the most. Their workshop is located underground. The ceiling is low, pipes are everywhere, and sewage water drips onto the floor. There are six industrial electric sewing machines and over a dozen manual (foot treadle) sewing machines set on eight workbenches. Each bench is over 10 yards long. The exit of the underground workshop is lined with bucket toilets. There are no lids on the toilets. Urine and other foul smells make everyone dizzy. Throughout the workday, besides the sewing machine noise, practitioners also suffer from the noise of other machines in the kitchen right above them on the ground floor.

Falun Gong practitioners have been forced to work in this underground location, twelve to fifteen hours a day. They never see sunlight or breathe fresh air. The noise remains above 200 decibels. Almost all of the practitioners have experienced deterioration of their physical conditions. Many have suffered from headaches and neurasthenia, have caught colds and have experienced digestive problems. Everyone has suffered from hearing deterioration and impaired eyesight. They have complained several times to the authorities and have asked for a ten-minute break after lunch and dinner so they can breathe fresh air outdoors. Officers Niu Xuelian and Zhao Jie, who are in charge of the brigade, rejected the practitioners' request.

This labour camp has been classified as a "national exemplary facility". The police can extend working hours arbitrarily. If the quota cannot be completed, practitioners are subject to police beatings, deduction of accumulated labour credits and the threat of extended unlawful prison terms. Those held in custody have been completely deprived of their dignity and freedom as human beings.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/21/68115.html