|
CHINA> National
![]() |
|
Outrage over Chinese 'slave' workers in Japan
By Li Xiang (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-12 07:12 China Thursday called on Japan to respect and safeguard the rights of Chinese workers, following a media report of six women being enslaved and abused by the Japanese firm that employed them. At a regular press briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said: "We hope the Japanese side will launch an immediate investigation, and handle the case properly and fairly to safeguard the interests of Chinese workers in Japan." "The Chinese embassy to Japan has expressed grave concern to the local police and labor protection supervision departments," Jiang said . "The embassy has sent officials to meet with the Japanese employers and relevant departments. They have also visited the women workers and expressed sympathy and solicitude," she said. According to a report this week in a Hubei newspaper, the six women, who all hail from the province, had been forced to work as "slaves" at a laundry owned by Techoclean in the Yamanashi prefecture in central Japan.
The women were made to work for more than 15 hours a day under extremely poor conditions and paid just 22 yuan ($3.25) per hour, far below Japan's legal minimum rate of 51 yuan per hour, the report said. They also contracted fungal skin infections from wearing rubber gloves and shoes for extended periods, and suffered chemical burns from handling detergent, it said. When the women protested about their poor wages and conditions, however, three of them were severely beaten and the others were sent back home, the report said. The women went to Japan in 2005 with the offer to work as interns at a clothing factory. However, a month after their arrival, they were sent to work at the laundry, the Hubei paper said. |
屯留县| 铁力市| 阿巴嘎旗| 余姚市| 阿坝| 合川市| 都匀市| 华容县| 苏尼特右旗| 邯郸市| 资中县| 台山市| 阿瓦提县| 文登市| 安福县| 东乌珠穆沁旗| 禄劝| 双峰县| 夏河县| 永年县| 延庆县| 青冈县| 广元市| 靖西县| 原阳县| 兴化市| 深泽县| 龙井市| 沂源县| 绥芬河市| 凌源市| 渑池县| 新源县| 喀什市| 芜湖县| 晋州市| 竹溪县| 凤山县| 绥棱县| 延寿县| 呼玛县|