Human rights report exposes China’s ‘black jails’

KIDNAPPING people on their way to lodge complaints with China’s central government has evolved into a lucrative cottage industry that police refuse to acknowledge or crack down on, a human rights group has said.

The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch on China’s “black jails” is based mainly on interviews with 38 people who said they were nabbed by thugs while trying to bring grievances to the central government. They reported being held for days or months in makeshift detention centres, deprived of food and sleep, beaten and threatened. Police allegedly aided the captors or refused to intervene in several cases, it said.

Black jails emerged in China about six years ago after police were barred from randomly detaining vagrants. The jails, usually makeshift lockups in hostels, apartment buildings or abandoned factories, have been well-documented by human rights groups, lawyers and the international media.