The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

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Ho Chi Minh City’s drug detention centers operate as part of the Vietnamese administrative—rather than criminal justice—system. According to Vietnamese law, court orders are not required to round up people who use drugs and detain them at the centers, and normal legal safeguards relating to imprisonment do not apply. Whether they enter voluntarily or after being taken into police custody, former detainees reported they had no lawyer or hearing, nor were they able to review the decision to detain them. When their detentions were extended, detainees reported that they did not receive a warning, explanation, or opportunity for appeal. There is no standard type of labor performed in the centers. Most have a variety of labor arrangements, some involving outside businesses, although cashew processing is common. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they knew of cashew production in 11 of the 16 centers under the administration of Ho Chi Minh City authorities. Former detainees also described how they are forced to work in other forms of agricultural production (either for outside sale, such as potato or coffee farming, or for consumption by detainees), garment manufacturing, other forms of manufacturing (such as making bamboo and rattan products), and construction work. Human Rights Watch received reports about particular products that were allegedly manufactured or processed in drug detention centers. Under Vietnamese law, companies who source products from these centers are eligible for tax exemptions. However, there is no public record in Vietnam listing all the companies that have commercial or contractual relations with the centers. Some of the products produced as a result of forced labor may make their way into the supply chain of companies who sell goods abroad, including to the US and Europe. Consistent with the responsibility in international law of all businesses to respect human rights and avoid complicity in abuses, companies that source products from Vietnam such as cashews or other goods identified in this report should undertake vigorous reviews to identify whether they are directly or indirectly purchasing from these centers. If they are, they should immediately sever those commercial ties. Some former detainees told Human Rights Watch that the labor they were forced to perform was unpaid. More commonly, forced labor is paid at wages well below the minimum wage. Centers commonly hold the wages of detainees as credit, against which centers levy charges for items such as food, accommodation, and “managerial fees.” 3 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2011
These charges often represent a significant amount—in some cases all—the detainee’s wages. Some detainees, when they are released from detention, owe the center money. Refusing to work, or violating any one of a number of center rules, results in beatings or confinement in disciplinary rooms (phong ky luat). Staff beat detainees with wooden truncheons or shock them with electrical batons, sometimes causing them to faint. In disciplinary rooms— either crowded punishment rooms or solitary confinement cells— physical deprivation is used as an additional form of punishment: food and/or drinking water rations are often reduced, access to bathing is restricted, and family visits are prohibited. People held in disciplinary rooms often have to work longer hours or conduct more strenuous work than usual, or are only allowed out of such rooms for 30 minutes each day, if they are allowed out at all. In addition to adults, children who use drugs are also held in drug detention centers. Like adults, they are forced to work, beaten, and abused. Whether committed against adults or children, abuses such as arbitrary detention, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, and forced labor are illegal under Vietnamese and international law. No one who had been detained described any form of scientifically or medically appropriate drug dependency treatment within a center. Psychosocial counseling involved lectures on the evils of drug use and morning exercises while chanting slogans such as “Healthy! Healthy! Healthy!” While compulsory healthcare interventions that involve restricting rights can be ethically justifiable in exceptional circumstances, such circumstances are rare. When they do occur, the decision to impose coercive medical treatment should be taken on an individualized basis; be overseen by judicial protections and due process; and respect best practices and international standards. Long-term, en masse detention of drug users for labor therapy is incompatible with the tenets of scientifically and medically appropriate drug dependency treatment and contravenes international law. Vietnamese authorities and the international community acknowledge that Vietnam’s system of forced labor in detention centers is not effective drug dependency treatment. Rates of relapse to drug use after “treatment” in the centers have been reported at between 80 and 97 percent. Yet Vietnamese officials have simply redoubled their efforts, lengthening periods of detention and institutionalizing labor therapy on an industrial scale. THE REHAB ARCHIPELAGO 4
Page 1 and 2: Vietnam The Rehab Archipelago Force
Page 3 and 4: Copyright © 2011 Human Rights Watc
Page 5 and 6: To Vietnamese and Foreign Companies
Page 7: wage. The center reduced his meager
Page 11 and 12: (such as arbitrary detention, tortu
Page 13 and 14: © 2011 Human Rights Watch Map of D
Page 15 and 16: spoke to an additional six people w
Page 17 and 18: eferred to as “trainers” (quan
Page 19 and 20: Government Policies towards Drug Us
Page 21 and 22: DRUG USE IN VIETNAM Recent research
Page 23 and 24: workshop[s] for manufacture and equ
Page 25 and 26: illion (US$ 2 million) will be inve
Page 27 and 28: People’s Committee) or in a drug
Page 29 and 30: CENTER LOCATION OFFICIAL NAME IN VI
Page 31 and 32: paper which was a decision from the
Page 33 and 34: years. He explained to Human Rights
Page 35 and 36: After being returned to the same ce
Page 37 and 38: Beatings and Other Punishments for
Page 39 and 40: Detainee guards also serve as workp
Page 41 and 42: “Guiding Principles on Business a
Page 43 and 44: province), Center No. 5 (Dak Nong p
Page 45 and 46: Vu Ban was in his late 20s when he
Page 47 and 48: For a month they put me in the puni
Page 49 and 50: A number of former detainees told H
Page 51 and 52: In April 2011, Human Rights Watch w
Page 53 and 54: This deception is also present in o
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2010: VND730,000 ($35) 180 A wage s
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Some detainees—such as Huong Son
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HCM City DOLISA Socialist Republic
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Centers commonly issue a detailed l
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We had detainee guards. They were c
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No cash was allowed in the center
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According to the regulations that g
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In my room there were about 30 fema
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The CRC guarantees all children the
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The special rapporteur on the right
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While the exact content of their co
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Between 2003 and 2008, the Academy
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The [Nhi Xuan] pilot, while achievi
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total number of drug detention cent
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United Nations Office of Drugs and
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Organizations either did not identi
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its projects in drug detention cent
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Global Compact’s principles are
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One of the stated project goals is
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… is a humanitarian response to t
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Capacity Building of Centers In rec
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Subsidizing Detention Costs The cur
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IV. Full Recommendations To the Vie
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To United Nations Agencies, includi
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• Include the issue of forced lab
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Acknowledgements This report was re
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• Work in such centers is not opt
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• The number of submitted individ
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7. With respect to vocational train
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• People are detained in such cen
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 350 Fifth Avenue
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• Whether your organization is aw
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Duc Hanh Medical Treatment Center A
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NAME (removed) DATE OF ADMITTANCE A
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 350 Fifth Avenue
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