Fifty student activists have gone missing in Southern China following a police raid in an apartment where they had been mobilising support for factory workers demanding union rights.
The raid took place at 5am yesterday (local time), near Shenzhen, in the Guangdong province.
The group consisted of 50 students and five workers, and is part of a growing labour rights coalition in China’s manufacturing region where activism from independent labour unions are prohibited or seen as a threat, the Guardian reports.
A video posted by a Hong Kong NGO on Twitter showed riot police storming an apartment with occupants.
The caption said, "Another video recoding how the whole supporting group was taken away at 5am today! What a shame! Free all workers and students who fight for a unionizing right!"
The missing students had been demonstrating in support of workers at Jasic Technology, a welding machinery company in Shenzhen, and had been fired earlier for their attempts to form a labour union.
Earlier this month, labour activist Shen Mengyu was abducted by a group of men.
"Hard-working labourers should not be subjected to crude and violent treatment," Ms Shen said previously in an article detailing her experiences as a woman labour worker on Red Balloon Solidarity .
The whereabouts of the 50 students and Ms Shen is unknown.
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