CHINA-IRAQ: TRAPPED CHINESE LABOUR
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An estimated 10,000 Chinese workers who traveled to Iraq in recent years, mostly on contract to Chinese oil companies, are still in Iraq. Most Chinese expatriates work in the south of Iraq, in predominantly Shiite areas, but almost 1,200 Chinese employees were caught unawares by the rebels’ rapid advance at the power plant 75 miles north of Baghdad. The Chinese embassy sent a helicopter twice to the plant site on June 25, 2014, and evacuated about 35 workers to Baghdad airport. Buses had collected over 200 others from the plant, but were turned back on the road to Baghdad by unidentified gunmen at checkpoints.
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