5月21日，河北省衡水市警方查抄了一个黑砖窑（black brick kiln），解救被困外地农民工（migrant workers）34人。窑主（the kiln's owner/kiln boss）、工头（foreman）、监工（supervisor/taskmaster）等11名犯罪嫌疑人已被刑事拘留，他们涉嫌采用殴打（beatings）、电击（electric shocks）、恐吓（threats）、限制自由（confinement）等手段强迫农民工从事超时重体力劳动，并扣押工资。（5月30日《燕赵都市报》）

       “黑砖窑”一词并不陌生，2007年曝出的的山西黑砖窑事件曾经震撼了全中国。“黑砖窑”指的是那些非法拘禁并强迫农民工从事危重劳动、非法收买和使用被拐骗儿童、恶意拖欠工资和侵占他人财产的砖窑，它们用暴力强迫这些民工及童工到砖窑当苦工，每天工作时间长达14小时到16小时，而且不给工资报酬。

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Black brick kilns with slave-like laborers have resurfaced in China, as 34 migrant workers were set free by a police raid in Hebei province, local media reported on Sunday.

A total of 11 suspects including the kiln's owner and foremen are under criminal detention, local police told the Hebei-based Yanzhao Metropolis Daily. The investigation is ongoing.

...

The case in Hebei revived the public's memories of the notorious "black brick kilns" that caused outcry nationwide three years earlier.

In 2007, brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces were found to be illegally confining teenage workers and forcing them into heavy labor. Some workers were seriously injured by foremen's beatings at these workplaces dubbed "black brick kilns" by Chinese media.

——Excerpt from Kiln using slave labor raided in Hebei

China sentenced a man to death and jailed another 28 people for up to life on Tuesday for their roles in a massive slavery and child labour scandal involving scorching brickworks in Shanxi Province.

The owners, managers and thugs at the prison-like kilns which the Chinese media said numbered in the hundreds in the northern province of Shanxi were convicted of charges including forced labour and illegal detention, an official said.

Zhao Yanbing received the death penalty from the Linfen Intermediate People's Court for accidentally killing a worker on a "black brick kiln" in Hongtong county, at the centre of the scandal.

The court also deprived off his political rights.

The slave labor scandal erupted last month after hundreds of parents complained their children were being forced to work in brick kilns in Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.

——Excerpt from Man gets death for kiln slavery

       （来源：中国网学英语频道）