Human Rights Watch says China is using secret prisons where people are sometimes unofficially being held for months. The detention centres are said to be located in hotels, hospitals and unused buildings.

The organisation interviewed nearly 40 people who said they had been kept in the makeshift jails. Most of the people being held are reported to be ordinary Chinese who have complained to the Beijing authorities about abuses, such as the expropriation of land, corruption or torture.

Human Rights Watch blames the situation on the way local government officials are rewarded for keeping the numbers of such complaints down to a minimum.

photo: flickr/Patries71