Boss ‘enslaved mentally ill’

CHINESE police are hunting a factory boss who enslaved mentally handicapped people, forcing them to work long hours without pay and beating them if they tried to escape, Chinese media reported yesterday.

The boss of a construction materials factory in China’s western Xinjiang province, hired about a dozen people, many of whom are mentally disabled, to grind rocks into powder, but did not provide clothing or pay. They were reportedly fed dog food, China’s tianshannet.com reported.

He disappeared before police raided the factory on Monday, and may have fled with the workers — some of whom had been enslaved for up to four years — to Chengdu city in Sichuan province, the report said. His wife was being held by police.

Incidents of forced labour have shocked China in the past, with slave bosses often preying on the mentally handicapped.