Chinese chef smuggled to Gabon says he was 'left for dead'

Li Guangxian took off for central Africa in January this year, in hopes that a 7,500 yuan (HK$9,500) monthly salary promised for working as a “cook” would help put his daughter through university and provide a better life for his impoverished family back home in Anhui.

Li is one of millions of migrant workers smuggled to Gabon and other African countries each year as Chinese companies rapidly expand their investments across the sub-continent. The National Development and Reform Commission estimated Chinese investment in 50 of the continent's 54 countries to have amounted to US$2.9 billion (HK$22.5 billion) last year, with an average annual growth rate of 50 per cent.

Forests cover about 85 per cent of the central African nation. The dense forestry is seen as a potentially vast economic asset up for grabs, especially by a resource-hungry China, whose operators have come to dominate the timber industry through a campaign of large-scale takeovers and acquisitions.

But the fruits of labour are rarely enjoyed by all. Li’s hellish ordeal in Gabon's capital Libreville lasted half a year. It was only in June that he and a few other Chinese workers were able to contact the Chinese embassy and go through a painstaking process to be put on a flight back to the mainland.

“The company withheld our wages for months. We requested to go home; they wouldn’t let us. When we were sick and wanted an advance to see a doctor; they would refuse,” Li told the newspaper, describing his nightmare at the remote timber plant, tucked away in thick jungle 15km from the nearest village. “I once told my wife I was prepared to die any day.”