14-Year-Old Russian Model Dies In China On 3-Month “Slave Labour” Contract

A 14-year-old model has died after collapsing while on a three-month contract in China.

Vlada Dzyuba, a young model from Russia, collapsed just before she was meant to go out onto the catwalk at a lengthy show in Shanghai. She slipped into a coma that was discovered to be caused by chronic meningitis, and died two days later.

The Siberian Times reports that Dzyuba was on a “slave labour” contract and being severely overworked. The newspaper also reports that she was too scared to ask for help when her illness worsened.

She was supposed to only have been working a maximum of three hours per week.

Her mother, Oksana, told reporters:

She was calling me, saying ‘Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep’.

It must have been the very beginning of the illness. And then her temperature shot up.

I didn’t sleep myself and was calling her constantly, begging her to go to hospital.

Dzyuba’s modelling agency in Perm, Russia, have admitted that they did not check whether the teenager had proper medical insurance before she left for China.  The head of the agency is quoted as saying, “We are now reaping what we have sown.

The human rights ombudsman in Perm is investigating Dzyuba’s death.

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