Posted: Apr 24, 2008 10:39 am EST
(MountEverest.net) "I want to die. When I am dead, nobody can exploit me anymore." Shortly after Wang Binyu had uttered these words he was executed, at age 28.

Wang was a migrant worker in north-central China. When his dad became sick, Wang needed money to pay for his surgery. The factory subcontractor continuously refused his wages; finally the desperate Wang got into a fight, killing four people. "I just could not take it any longer. I had taken enough from them," Wang said from jail, according to NYT. "I should not have killed the other people. I did not mean to let it happen. My life is a small thing, ...I hope that society will pay attention and respect us."

The Olympic slaves

One year later, Zhang - a frantic 26-year-old female migrant worker in Northeast China sat down naked outside the furniture factory she claimed owed her backwages of up to 8,000 yuan. In Guangzhou, two men stood on the edge of a high building and threatened to jump if they were not paid.

While Chinese dictators throw 120 million Euro on Nepal to close Everest South side for the Olympic torch relay; they deny payments to their own migrant workers building the Olympic stage.

At 900 million people, rural peasants make up the vast majority of the Chinese. These people are chained to their spot, by law prohibited to move. In search for a better life, some become migrant workers. The boys go into construction, the girls into sweatshop factories making our toys, clothing and shoes. These are the folks serving to make China's selected urban population and western investors rich. They are beaten, extorted and at least on one occasion - killed.

No legal protection

In 2003, Inter Press news service reported that China's migrant workers do the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs, are paid at the whim of their employers, are barred from access to public services including hospitals and enjoy almost no legal rights. By then, about 100 million people worked as such pariah workers, and according to a BBC report, were owed about $12bn of back-pay by their homeland.

Back then, many economists said the rural-urban gap in income (1:3) was wider than when the communists came to power in 1949.

"Party chief Hu Jintao, who is assuming the presidency from retiring Jiang Zemin, and premier-to-be Wen Jiabao have made public their intention to be more responsive to the needs of the downtrodden in society," however reported IRN in 2003. So how did it go?

No change with new regime

Wang was executed in 2005, the desperate woman stripped naked in 2006. In July 2007, hoodlums hired as strike breakers murdered a migrant construction worker at a building site in Guangdong province where the striking workers had remained unpaid for months.

In a 61-page report released by the Human Rights Watch on March 12, 2008, it is stated that about 1 million migrants now make up nearly 90 percent of a construction workforce building the "New Beijing" and Olympic Games-related infrastructure.

The migrants claim that they are forced to work, and lucky if they are paid at all. They can't file complaints against their employers due to lack of Beijing residence permits. Those who protest face threats of sometimes deadly violence. Workers told Human Rights Watch they work every day without break, that they are sometimes woken and ordered to get up and work in the middle of the night. Only available to legally registered urban residents; the migrants get no medical services while working hazardous construction with no insurance.

Come pay-day, project bosses claim they are busy or that ‘the money hasn’t arrived yet’. Some workers end up with less than 20 Yuan (US$2.67) per day, while being deducted eight Yuan (US$1.07) per day for living costs.

Others have their salaries withheld for up to a year and then are offered a low lump-sum. Others again get no pay at all.

Enjoy the free lunch

"The Chinese government is all talk and no action when it comes to delivering meaningful protection and social services for migrant construction workers," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at the Human Rights Watch.

The Olympic movement reportedly prides itself on its dedication to ‘fundamental universal ethical principles.’ Fundamental international human rights are clearly not part of it.

When we reach for that cheap product made in China, we should whisper a prayer for Wang. When the politicians, athletes and journalists enter the flashy grounds of the Olympic village in a few months time; they should remember that at least six workers have died building it, while one group of Chinese migrant workers told Human Rights Watch their employer refused to pay for work performed between April 2006 and November 2006. In March 2007, the workers still had not been paid.

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