Chinese nationals rescued from ‘horrific’ forced labour during US factory raid

When a coalition of federal and local law enforcement agents swarmed a Bartow county flooring manufacturer in the US state of Georgia late last month, some workers picked up and ran, mistakenly thinking an immigration raid was taking place.

The authorities’ arrival at Wellmade Industries in Cartersville, roughly 64km (40 miles) north of Atlanta, was the culmination of what an official described as a “massive” labour trafficking investigation.

At an April 4 news conference, Steven Schrank, special agent with a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said law enforcement encountered 60 victims of “horrific” forced labour.

He confirmed that the plant was just one of eight locations searched, in addition to seven residences where workers were being held in cramped conditions.

Those sweeps yielded two arrests: Wellmade Industries’ owner, Zhu Chen, and his nephew, Jiayi Chen. A third person connected to the company, Jian Jun Lu, was arrested on April 5. All three face felony charges of “trafficking of persons for labour or sexual servitude.”

At bond hearings on April 7, assistant district attorney Austin Waldo said Wellmade Industries’ workers had their travel documents confiscated once they arrived to the US, making it more difficult for them to leave, according to coverage from WBHF.