Dreams turn into a road to hell and back
FOR months, Ding was locked in a 16-square-metre workers’ dormitory near a Chinese smelting facility in Konawe, Indonesia, where he had been assigned to carry out one of his country’s vaunted ‘‘Belt and Road’’ projects.
The 40-year-old native of China’s Henan province, who gave only his surname out of security fears, said a guard kept watch at the door. When coronavirus ravaged the dorm last November, he developed a fever. Still, he could not leave.
Finally, earlier this year, Ding pulled apart the plastic bars on a rear window and climbed out, fleeing on a motorcycle driven by a friend.
‘‘It was like I went to hell and back,’’ he said. ‘‘I had no other choice but to escape.’’
China’s Belt and Road initiative, which aims to connect Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe through Chinese-funded ports, bridges, 5G networks and other infrastructure, is built on the backs of people like Ding, who researchers say face exploitation that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Interviews with labour rights advocates and a dozen Chinese workers employed by stateowned companies and subcontractors reflect a pattern of abuse that threatens to undermine China’s ambitious bid for diplomatic and economic influence, a mission closely tied to the legacy of President Xi Jinping. Many spoke on the condition of full or partial anonymity, fearing retribution.
New York-based China Labour Watch argues in a new report that overseas Chinese workers are victims of human trafficking and forced labour.
Workers described being held against their will, forced to work while infected with the coronavirus, and deceived into working illegally. Their passports were seized, they said, and most had gone months without pay. Some said they were beaten or forced into ‘‘thought training’’ for protesting about their conditions.
‘‘The entire Belt and Road initiative is based on forced labour,’’ said Li Qiang, director of China Labour Watch, whose report was based on interviews with workers in six countries. ‘‘Chinese authorities want the Belt and Road projects for political gain, and need to use these workers.’’
China’s Commerce Ministry did not respond to questions about the workers’ claims that they were barred from coming home, forced to keep working, subjected to overwork, detained in company facilities and denied their passports. China’s Foreign Ministry said it could not immediately respond to the allegations.
The Delong industrial park where Ding was held, a metal processing complex surrounded
by villages, is a key Belt and Road project showcasing the ‘‘quality of Chinese-funded enterprises’’, according to China’s Commerce Ministry.
Like China’s economic boom, these projects rely on men like Ding, from poor rural areas, willing to work for modest wages. More have been going overseas as China’s construction industry has slowed – according to official data, about 1 million Chinese workers were stationed abroad in 2019, a figure researchers say was probably much higher.
Workers who spoke to China Labour Watch reported 12-hour days in hazardous conditions with little protection.
One worker was paralysed after being struck by a hammer. In Indonesia, a worker was crushed to death by a truck. Another said he lost the sight in one eye after an injury at work.
Many said their employers did not obtain formal work visas, making the workers illegal migrants. Others described being bought and resold by brokers and subcontractors – transactions over which they had little control.
The pandemic has worsened matters. Workers said companies struggling to keep projects on track forced them to keep toiling by withholding their wages.
As the prices of limited flights back to China soared, employers refused to pay for promised journeys home. If workers could not pay the extra costs of up to several thousand dollars, they could not return.
When one of Ding’s coworkers in Indonesia contracted the virus last year, he was put in isolation without medical attention, workers at the industrial park said. His colleagues later found him dead.
At the Delong site, workers said they were desperate to leave. One Chinese employee said he was beaten by local security guards and handcuffed after arguing with a manager to be allowed to return to China.
Like many lured by the promise of a job contributing to a national cause, Deng Zukun was optimistic before arriving in Algeria. The 53-year-old from Hubei province had borrowed so he could pay a US$1500 (NZ$2100) ‘‘security deposit’’ to an employment broker to get a job with a Chinese subcontractor working on Belt and Road projects, including mosques and residential buildings.
Before starting in 2018, he had watched news segments on the projects, detailing preferential treatment and good wages. ‘‘When I arrived, it wasn’t like that,’’ Deng said.
His employer took his passport. The pay was less than promised, and he was not given a work visa, he said.
Deng wanted to leave but couldn’t afford the penalty of up to US$4650 – half a year’s wages. His contract ended last October, but he has not been able to return home and is running low on money.
‘‘We were cheated ... and
ended up becoming illegal migrants,’’ he said. ‘‘They don’t care whether the workers live or die.’’
Overseas Chinese workers are often caught in a complex chain of brokers, subcontractors and employers in China and abroad. ‘‘These workers fall through the cracks of national labour laws. When they are overseas, they are practically in legal limbo,’’ said Ching Kwan Lee, a sociologist at UCLA.
Chinese regulators have tried to curb exploitation through a system of government-registered agencies. In 2017, the Commerce Ministry began to crack down on unregistered brokers. But abuses persist as brokers and employers flout the rules.
‘‘I think that the Chinese government is embarrassed by examples of its workers being abused overseas,’’ said Aaron Halegua, a lawyer representing Chinese construction workers in a lawsuit alleging forced labour, filed in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands against the Imperial Pacific casino on Saipan and two of its Chinese contractors.
Workers like Deng are unlikely to seek legal help because of language barriers and fear of deportation or fines if they are caught working illegally. Many do not have recourse to go after labour brokers – many of them unregistered – who recruit workers with false promises.
For Niu Zepeng, 40, who was building apartments in Souk Ahras province in Algeria, the Belt and Road programme has also been a disappointment. Stuck there and owed more than a year’s wages, he said, he had been forced to borrow money. ‘‘We are abandoned here.’’
‘‘We were cheated . . . and ended up becoming illegal migrants. They don’t care whether the workers live or die.’’ Deng Zukuin, Chinese migrant worker in Algeria