Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Severely beaten and crippled by his employer, to avoid paying him. Typical stories of injustice in the great country of the economic miracle, where development thrives by the sweat of the migrants, but no one protects their fundamental rights.

Liu Hongjiang left his village in 1990, at the age of 29, to seek his fortune as a construction worker. He worked in Rizhao (Shangdong) for more than a year, and in 1991 he asked for his back pay, about 30,000 yuan. The boss had him beaten until bled and fainted. He woke up in a ditch  along a road bordering the province of Jiangsu, many kilometres away, with an injury to his tendon that deprived him of the use of his left leg. Crippled and with no money, it took him months to return to Rizhao, but the building projects had been completed, and the employer had disappeared.

His brothers didn't find him until last month, after he had been surviving for years by eating what he could find in the garbage. Now the police are conducting investigations, and his family is preparing to sue the employer.

But the general situation of migrants has not improved much. A study by the university of Fudan, conducted with a sample of 30,000 migrants, has found that about 80% of them work more than 8 hours a day, and more than 55% have fewer than 2 days of rest each month. This uninterrupted work increases the risk of accidents, and deprives them of the chance to study and improve their condition, and even to lead a normal life. They have no health or accidental injury assistance. But the biggest problem is the delay or refusal of payment on the part of their employers.

Qin Hushao, who came to Beijing from Hebei, tells the South China Morning post that he worked for more than 50 days without being paid, and couldn't find anyone to help him get his money.

"Without money", he explains, "you cannot survive here. And without money you cannot even sue". Now he wants only to get his money and go back home.