AFP: Crackdown on China workers' rights groups

11 September 2012

China Labour Bulletin is quoted in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

AFP. 10 September 2012

Around 10 groups that offer help to the millions of migrant workers living  and working in Shenzhen have suffered random inspections and evictions, some of  which turned violent, said the letter seen by AFP on Monday.

“Police have failed to prevent labour organisations from being evicted from  their offices for unknown reasons, sometimes even violently,” said the letter  signed by 20 scholars and sent to the city and provincial governments Sunday.

The Dagongzhe Migrant Worker Centre was one of the first to be caught in  the crackdown, with workers evicted from their offices in July after the water  and electricity supply to their office was shut off by local authorities.

Another, the Hand in Hand Workers’ Home, was evicted from its offices on  Sunday, while local government staff confiscated property belonging to a group  called The Little Grass Workers’ Home last month, staff there told AFP.

Both groups provided services including safety training, legal assistance  and psychological counselling to factory workers in the city, whose vast  factories are a magnet for workers across China.

“There has been a sustained campaign of harassment against NGOs in  Shenzhen,” said Geoffrey Crothall, spokesperson for Hong Kong-based monitoring  group China Labour Bulletin.

Crothall said local government was involved in the moves against labour  organisations in Shenzhen, which he called a “misguided attempt by the  government to reorganise or reconfigure NGOs in the city”.

None of the groups contacted by AFP was able to explain the crackdown, but  some speculated that that the local office of China’s only legal trade union,  the All China Federation of China Trade Unions, saw them as competition.

Chinese workers are entitled to join the union, but its activities are  tightly restricted by politicians and employers.

Calls to provincial government offices in Guangdong went unanswered Monday,  while a spokesman for the Shenzhen city government said he was unaware of the open letter. -- AFP

Back to Top

This website uses cookies that collect information about your computer.

Please see CLB's privacy policy to understand exactly what data is collected from our website visitors and newsletter subscribers, how it is used and how to contact us if you have any concerns over the use of your data.