Sobering

Halloween decorations carry haunting message of forced labor

The letter came in a box of Halloween decorations purchased at Kmart, but for a year Julie Keith never knew. It gathered dust in her storage, a haunting plea for help hidden among artificial skeletons, tombstones and spider webs.

If legitimate, this letter is from a forced labour facility in China. It breaks the heart to think of someone being 're-educated' through such labour for disagreeing with the party line. And it is disturbing that K-Mart sold something that may have been produced by such a place.

"We're in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. "I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps."

China's re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial. Various reports allege followers of the banned spiritual group, Falun Gong, are sent to the reform camps – claims supported in the letter – but the facts are difficult to confirm.

Masanjia labor camp is located in the industrialized capital of the Liaoning Province in northeast China. A Google search of the camp yields pages of grim results.

"If this thing is the real deal, that's somebody saying please help me, please know about me, please react," Richardson said. "That's our job."

I went to K-Mart for the first time in years the other day. All the clothing I looked at was made in countries like China, Vietnam, and Thailand. It makes me wonder what conditions those workers have as well.