China frees brick kiln slaves and then loses them

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police freed four men found to be working as virtual slaves in a brink kiln in a case similar to one which shook the country last year, but lost three of them while trying to send them home, a report said on Friday.

The four were free in late December in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, and had been working in appalling conditions at the kiln for up to a year, the China Youth Daily said.

Some were suspected of being mentally disabled, and at least one was totally illiterate, knew neither his name nor home address and was simply referred to as "Second Dog", the newspaper added.

They were fed gruel and steamed buns, beaten if they did not work hard enough, and not paid, the report said.

Though the police did finally rescue them, and their families were notified, three of the men vanished in the process of being sent home, probably because they were sent to the wrong provinces, it said.

When the relatives complained, they were initially met with either hostility by local government officials, who did not believe the men could have been sent to the wrong home towns, or disbelief at their stories, the paper added.

"How could they just loose a person?" the report quoted one of the relatives as saying.

In last year's slave scandal, police rescued more than 1,300 people, including children and mentally handicapped, who were forced to work in terrible conditions at brick kilns in the poor northern province of Shanxi.

The victims had to work in scorching kilns with no protective clothing, enduring confinement and beatings and kept at bay by dogs as owners tried to maximize production and meet demand from a booming construction industry.

The scandal only came to light after more than 400 parents posted an online petition and turned to reporters for help to find their missing children, many of whom were kidnapped or cheated to be sold to the kilns.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)