Foster daughters treated like slaves

By Zhang Xuanchen

POLICE in eastern China have detained a man who allegedly abused his four foster daughters aged four to six, keeping them in chains since they were months old.

Two girls have been reunited with their biological parents while the other two, whose parents were unknown, have been sent to a local social welfare home in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, reported yesterday's Shanghai Morning Post.

The girls were adopted by the man surnamed Yang when they were a couple of months old.

Two girls aged four were rescued after a staff member who took charge of their empty residential complex accidentally saw them looking out of the window of a fifth-floor apartment on September 14.

He was surprised because construction of the apartment was not finished and there was no electricity or tap water in the room. After he opened the door, he saw the girls were shackled by two 1-meter-long iron chains to a water pipe in kitchen, in shabby clothes and suffered starvation.

There was nothing other than one bowl of some spoiled rice, bottles of dirty water and a smelly pot containing their urine. The girls were stunned and shouted to the man when he tried to cut down their chain because they were afraid of being beaten by Yang.

Police soon arrived and detained Yang. At Yang's mother's home, police found the two six-year-old girls, who had also suffered abuse for years. The girls said they were forced to work for Yang, his mother and his son upon adoption.

The girls will get physical and mental checkups by police. The motive for abuse was still being investigated, the newspaper said.