Shocking images of a government-run homeless shelter in Henan Province has caused heated discussion online since they were uploaded earlier this week.
The squalid scenes, captured at a so-called "Relief Station" in Gushi County, feature residents sleeping on the dirt floor, or on hay or wooden crates, wrapped in filthy sheets to get through the sub-zero nights .
In the courtyard, a lifeless body lies covered by a bed sheet while "mentally ill" young boys are tied to the trees. As one commentator put it, "they'd be better off begging on the streets."
Relief Stations are a nationwide network of state-run shelters intended to aid beggars and vagrants. The centers are charged with providing suitable food, basic accommodation, emergency medical care, and help contacting people's families or work units and bringing them back home.
Following the infamous Sun Zhigang Case in 2003, Relief Stations were established to replace the decades-old "Custody and Repatriation" system, which allowed local authorities to detain anyone with a non-local residence permit for indefinite amounts of time.
Detainees were often exploited as unpaid labor or ransomed off to relatives before being shipped back to wherever they came from. They became, however briefly, slaves and hostages of their own government.
In March 2003, a 27-year-old university graduate from Hubei Province called Sun Zhigang came down to Guangzhou to take up a job offer as a designer. Since he didn't yet possess a Guangdong residence permit, however, Sun was detained as he entered the southern manufacturing hub and held at a Custody and Repatriation Center — there, he was savagely beaten to death for no reason other than arguing against his detention.
Following a national outcry, the Custody and Repatriation system was abolished by June that year and what were once detention centers became Relief Stations, now tasked with helping rather than exploiting the less fortunate.
With no financial incentive to do so, however, it appears that, Gushi County, they can expect help from no one but themselves.
[Images via NetEase]
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