Beijing Ordered Migrants to Leave for the Olympics

August 15, 2008

According to a July 21 Reuters report and a July 24 Agence France-Presse (via Yahoo News) report, Beijing authorities launched an anti-pollution campaign that month to halt construction and close factories in the city, leaving migrants who had worked on Olympic projects jobless and forcing them to leave the city or find work elsewhere.

According to a July 21 Reuters report and a July 24 Agence France-Presse (via Yahoo News) report, Beijing authorities launched an anti-pollution campaign that month to halt construction and close factories in the city, leaving migrants who had worked on Olympic projects jobless and forcing them to leave the city or find work elsewhere. A March 12 Human Rights Watch report documented severe exploitation of migrants who lack household registration and work for Olympic construction sites, including failure to provide insurance and social services, faulty or non-existent labor contracts, and unpaid wages.

This January, to ensure security during the Olympic Games, Beijing officials ordered public security bureaus to heighten inspections of migrants without Beijing household registration status (hukou), according to the Beijing News on January 13. (See the Congressional-Executive Commission on China's Topic Paper on China's Household Registration System for more information on the hukou system). A July 17 report from the Community TV Network said that many migrants believe that the government's intensified checks are aimed at preventing protests and incidents that Chinese authorities think could mar China's image.

These pre-Olympics actions by the Chinese government are inconsistent with international human rights standards such as equal treatment, freedom of residence, and right to work, as defined in art. 2, 13(1), and 23(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They also contravene Chinese official statements promoting equal treatment and encouraging non-enforcement of restrictions on migrants during the Olympics as reported in the Southern Daily (via Sohu) on April 10 and Xinhua (via China Daily) on March 8.

For more information about the impact of household registration status on Chinese migrants, see the CECC's 2007 Annual Report, Section II - Freedom of Residence and Travel.