Desperate plight of Chinese children living in chains because working parents cannot afford childcare and medical fees



Siblings left chained up as their parents work on building site



Youngsters have been reduced to tears by their lack of mobility

Their plight reflects poverty experienced by many families in China



Two young children are left chained up on a building site in Guangzhou in southern China while their parents work.



The small boy and his sister, aged three and four, are restrained by heavy chains so they cannot run off or be taken away by strangers.

The children, whose parents are believed to be poor migrant workers, have been seen to cry with frustration at their limited movement.



Tragic: The children are left chained up at a building site by their parents in Guangzhou, southern China - because they cannot afford the cost of childcare

Tears: The young boy and girl are restrained with heavy chains while their parents are at work. A passer buy described seeing the siblings crying because of their limited movement

Residents living nearby said the children's parents are from southern China's Hunan Province, and do odd building work in their village.



It is too dangerous for them to take the youngsters into the construction site while they work, so they are forced to leave them in chains to keep them safe.



The children's father said he and his wife 'know it's not right' to leave them chained up.



'My wife cried many times [over] this,' he said, 'but we really don't have a choice. It's so difficult working outside, and our only hope is to bring them up quickly.'

The harrowing scene demonstrates the grinding poverty experienced by many families in parts of China.

Some parents are unable to afford to have their children, or disabled relatives, looked after while they try to make a living.

Workers: The children's father said he and their mother know it is 'not right' to leave them chained up - but that they have 'no choice'

Last month pictures revealed the plight of a 13-year-old girl, Jiang Manqi, who is regularly left tethered to a moped in Fuzhou, in China's Fujian province by her grandfather so he can work recycling rubbish.



Her family cannot afford to seek medical help to treat the teenager's epilepsy, so she was tied to the bike so her relative could look after her.



Meanwhile in Nanjing, eastern China, a woman has kept her mentally ill son chained in a room for the past 21 years.



Hong Chunlin, 37, spends most of his time shackled by his wrist and lying in bed.

