A disabled person who had been missing for over a decade in Handan, Hebei Province, was found in a cattle farm just 100 kilometers away from home, where he was used as a laborer without pay and subjected to physical abuse on a regular basis. After being reported by civilian anti-human trafficking volunteer Shang Guanzheng, the boss of the cattle farm not only acted arrogantly but also claimed that “the local government is aware of it,” raising doubts about the official notification.
According to Shang Guanzheng, who has been exposing the situation on social media since July 11, an unidentified disabled person was discovered being exploited as a laborer at a cattle farm located near the riverbank in Qin Village, Dacunji Town, Linzhang County, Handan City, Hebei Province.
Shang Guanzheng introduced that the disabled person had no verbal communication skills, only knew how to work, lived in a tin shack next to the cattle pen, and endured a dreadful living environment with no wages and frequent beatings.
Local villagers revealed that in the past, this boss had also picked up a mentally disabled elderly person to work for him for over a decade, stating that “when the old man couldn’t work anymore, who knows where the boss threw him.”
After Shang Guanzheng reported the incident to the police, he was immediately targeted by the boss of the cattle farm, who followed him for several kilometers on a three-wheeler. Shortly after, the authorities arrived at the scene, but instead of backing down, the boss and his son forcibly tried to pull Shang Guanzheng out of his car, shouting loudly, “the village government is aware of it.”
Following the release of the video, a netizen named Mr. Ren from Xingtai claimed that the individual in the video appeared to be his long-lost cousin. Upon obtaining the specific address, he drove to Linzhang County on the afternoon of the 11th to verify the identity.
Mr. Ren mentioned that calling out the disabled person’s nickname “Lao Er” would elicit a response. Subsequently, Mr. Ren and his family rushed to the Linzhang County Public Security Bureau, where the staff used big data to match his cousin’s identity card information, without disclosing specific details.
On July 12th, Shang Guanzheng revealed that the disabled person had been reunited with his family, hailing from Sansi Township, Nanhe County, Xingtai City in Hebei Province, born around 1989 and had disappeared over ten years ago. Despite his family’s desperate search efforts, his father passed away a few years after his disappearance, with the two locations separated by only 100 kilometers.
On the same day, the Linzhang County government in Handan City, Hebei Province, reported that, after initial investigations, the disabled person was identified as a certain individual (male, 38 years old) who had been taken to Qin Village in Dacunji Town, Linzhang County three years ago, where the cattle farm operator Gao provided him with food and accommodation, assigning him to feed the cattle without reporting the situation to relevant authorities.
The report mentioned that the police had located the disabled person’s relatives through information matching and returned him home. Gao had been summoned by the police for investigation.
However, Shang Guanzheng stated in another post on July 13th that several local villagers claimed that the disabled person had been with the boss for more than three years, with the disabled person’s relatives even stating that his front teeth had been knocked out by the boss.
Shang Guanzheng further stated, “Feedback from Hebei indicates that the cattle farm owner and his son have been criminally detained for forced labor.”
As of now, there have been no official follow-up reports.