The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

Garment and Bag Manufacturing
Many former detainees told Human Rights Watch that their labor involved sewing or
embroidering clothes. 136 An Thi was in her 20s in late 2008 when she was released from
Center No. 1, where she was detained for five years. She sewed for almost all that time.
The days were all the same. We awoke at six a.m. and exercised. If your family
gave you money you had breakfast. 137 Work began at 7:30 a.m. and we
knocked off for lunch and a nap at 11 a.m. We worked again from one to four
p.m. for a total of a six-and-a-half hour workdays. We were 300 women [in the
center] divided into eight rooms, each room having two or three staff guards.
Then the staff chose detainee leaders to lead us in our work. I sewed for
almost five years except right before I left, when I skinned cashews. I sewed
uniforms for detainees in drug centers, as well as trousers and t-shirts. 138
Truc Ninh was in her late 20s when she was detained. She was transferred between
various centers before being held at Nhi Xuan center for 18 months prior to release. “At Nhi
Xuan there were 1000 detainees and 300 of us were women,” she said. “I sewed t-shirts
and nylon jackets for eight hours a day.” 139
Hai Duong spent five years in detention, the last three-and-a-half years at Phu Van center.
She did agricultural work at the beginning, and was later reassigned to embroidery work.
I did embroidery eight hours a day and was paid piecework. I was good at it.
We embroidered the top of a Korean garment called a hanbok. They were
many colors and patterns…. If you refused to work they sent you out to do
more field work. Everyone worked. 140
135 Human Rights Watch interview with Ly Nhan, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
136 Human Rights Watch interviews with Tra Linh, Truc Ninh, Quy Hop, Hai Duong, An Thi, Khoai Chau, Yen The,
Ba Che, Cho Don, Tien Du, and Vu Ban, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
137 Former detainees explained that families pay money into detainees’ accounts, both to meet the charges levied by
the centers and to give their relatives some credit. Detainees then use credit in their account— which either exists
because family members deposited money or from wages that remained after center-imposed deductions—to
purchase personal items from the center canteen. However, these items are not luxuries. They include sufficient food
such as breakfast (which otherwise is not provided) and personal hygiene items such as soap and toothpaste. For
example, Human Rights Watch interviews with Duc Tho, Can Loc, An Thi, Vu Ban, and Dinh Lap, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
138 Human Rights Watch interview with An Thi, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
139 Human Rights Watch interview with Truc Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
140 Human Rights Watch interview with Hai Duong, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
43 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2011