Entertainment, Fashion, Beauty, Lifestyle, News, Events, Insights and Inspirations, Share your thoughts and experiences …..

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Beware


Cameroonian Prisoner In China's Plea For Help Found In
Saks Bag.
A woman has revealed to US media how she found a plea for help from a man
imprisoned in China in a bag from the upmarket Saks store in New York.
In the note, the man said he was forced to work 13-hour days at a Chinese prison
factory to make the bags.
The discovery by Stephanie Wilson in September 2012 prompted a search for the
man's whereabouts, reports say.
News website DNA info says it managed to track down the man - a Cameroonian who
had already been released.
The high-end department store, Saks, said it had launched an investigation into the
discovery but could not determine the specific origins of the bag, the report adds.
'Like slaves'
The 28-year-old woman made the discovery after pulling out a receipt from a paper
shopping bag from the Fifth Avenue store.
The note, signed by Tohnain Emmanuel Njong, said: "We are ill-treated and work like
slaves for 13 hours every day producing these bags in bulk in the prison factory."
He ended his letter by saying "thanks and sorry to bother you" and left an email
address, which was discovered at the time to be defunct.
A passport-sized photo of a man in an orange jacket was also enclosed.
"I read the letter and I just shook," Ms Wilson told DNAinfo .
Ms Wilson, an Australian currently working in New York, passed the note on to the
human rights Laogai Research Foundation.
The organisation was unable to track him down but raised awareness of the letter
with the Department of Homeland Security and the Saks Fifth Avenue store.
With the help of social media accounts, DNAinfo said it recently made contact with
someone who indentified himself as the man behind the letter.
"Unprompted, Njong described obscure details in the letter, like its mention of
Samuel Eto'o, a professional soccer player on English Premier league team Chelsea,
who like Njong is from Cameroon in West Africa," the website said.
According to DNAinfo, he was detained in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao after
being arrested for fraud in May 2011 - charges he denies.
He told the news website that he had worked long hours in the factory to produce
paper bags, electronic goods and garments, from 06:00 until 22:00.
The 34-year-old said he wrote a total of five letters in both French and English
calling for help.
"Maybe this bag could go somewhere and they find this letter and they can let my
family know or anybody [know] that I am in prison," he added.
Mr Njong said he was released on a reduced sentence for good behaviour in
December 2013 and was later reunited with his family in Cameroon, the website
added....BBC

No comments:

Post a Comment