"Chinese workers allege forced labor, abuses in Xi’s ‘Belt and Road’ program", 30 April 2021

[...] Interviews with labor rights advocates and a dozen Chinese workers employed by state-owned companies and subcontractors reflect a pattern of abuse [...] New York-based China Labor Watch asserts in a new report that overseas Chinese workers are victims of human trafficking and forced labor. Workers described being held against their will, forced to work while infected with the coronavirus and deceived into working illegally. Their passports were seized, they said, and most had gone months without pay. Some said they were beaten for protesting conditions or forced into “thought training.” [...]

China’s Commerce Ministry did not respond to questions faxed this past week about the workers’ claims that they were barred from coming home, forced to keep working, subjected to overwork, detained in company facilities and denied their passports.

In response to faxed and emailed questions sent Monday and Wednesday, China’s Foreign Ministry said it could not immediately respond to the allegations of worker abuse and needed more time to verify the information. [...]