Disability Access News

From correspondents in China
March 21, 2008 12:23am

CHINESE police have rescued 33 intellectually disabled people forced to work at a building site by slave labour merchants after the apparent suicide of a detainee alerted authorities.

The case in Hulan, a city in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, echoes a major scandal involving more than 1,000 people forced to work in brutal conditions at brick kilns in Shanxi province last year.

More than 30 captives were discovered crammed in a tiny room in a residential building, the Beijing Times has reported, after students at a neighbouring police college saw a man jump from a seventh-floor window.

``As the students ran over, the man jumped,'' the paper reported.

They found the captives in a ``reeking'' room piled with straw mattresses and shabby blankets.

Police later found many of them ``could not speak coherently, or clearly remember their names or where their families lived''.

One had been held for three years.

All had been rounded up at a train station in nearby Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, and were duped into getting into cars by a gang offering work.

They were sent to do manual labour on a building site, and those that attempted to escape were ``beaten and terrorised'', the paper reported.

China announced a nationwide crackdown on enslavement and child labour last year after reports of hundreds of poor farmers, children and intellectually disabled were forced or lured to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi and neighbouring Henan.

ANGUS HOHENBOKEN
Tasmania Mercury

March 20, 2008 12:00am
THE family of disabled teenager Scott Holmes said they were furious at having two weeks of respite cancelled at a day's notice.

Leanne and Chris Smith spoke with the Mercury last week about their frustration at waiting three years for disability day-care funding.

Following a story in the Mercury on March 12 they were pleased to get a call from Disability Services assuring them he had been moved to the top of the priority list.

But the next day Mr Smith received a call from Lutana Disability Services Respite Care Centre informing him respite booked for Scott from March 14-28 had been cancelled.

Scott has the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old and requires constant supervision.

One week out of every month he does not sleep.

Mr Smith this week said he and Leanne had been severely disappointed at having to cancel holidays.

"(Another client) was supposed to be picked up (at the care centre) on Thursday and the family said they wouldn't be coming to pick them up basically."

He said the centre had also cancelled respite for another two people that were going away on holidays.

"Another couple was going to Melbourne and they've been dealt with the same," Mr Smith said.

"I don't know if there are others not being picked up or if they have just over-booked.

"But we know for a fact there are people in there permanently."

What most annoyed the couple, who have two other children at home, was the short notice.

They were initially told the dates were not available and then they were approved, so Mrs Smith had taken time off work and they booked accommodation in Launceston.

Mr Smith said he didn't blame the respite centre.

"Respite's hands are tied, they can't put the kids out on the street," he said.

"The Government needs to be doing more to help them out."

Disability Services director Wendy Quinn denied the family's respite accommodation had been cancelled.

She said there had been a mix-up with a booking and alternative care options were offered to the family.

"No other bookings have been cancelled," she said.

"Families with booked clients were advised of a recent emergency admission of a client with some behavioural issues and some chose themselves to make other arrangements."