The Vietnamese government partners with private companies to use the forced labor in detention centers for producing goods, in some cases for export. According to the Human Rights Watch report, Vietnamese law allows tax exemptions for companies who source products from these centers, making a contract with a detention center very attractive to companies.
The type of labor performed in the centers includes farming, sewing clothing and shopping bags, working in construction, and manufacturing products made from wood, plastic, bamboo, and rattan. However, the most common form of forced labor (found in 11 of the 16 centers in Ho Chi Minh City) is processing cashews, the second largest agricultural export to the United States.
Cashew processing in the detention centers has negative health effects, including skin rashes, other allergic reactions, and respiratory problems. Former detainees told Human Rights Watch that cashew resins from the nuts made performing the labor very difficult. “I would sometimes inhale the dust from the skins and that would make me cough. If the fluid from the hard outer husk got on your hands it made a burn,” said one former detainee.
Detaining drug users against their will and forcing them to work for little or no pay has proven to be an ineffective form of drug rehabilitation. Human Rights Watch states that relapse rates in Vietnam have been reported at “between 80 and 97 percent” for those who have left the centers. In response to this, Vietnamese officials have simply lengthened periods of detention.
This system of state-sponsored forced labor has been a growing problem over the past decade. The number of drug detention centers in Vietnam has increased from 56 centers in 2000 to 123 in 2011, an increase of 220%. An estimated 309,000 people were detained in Vietnam’s drug detention centers from 2000 to 2010.
In its report, Human Rights Watch calls on the Government of Vietnam to permanently close its drug detention centers. The International Labor Rights Forum agrees that Vietnam must put an end to state-sponsored forced labor.
Comments
re: Forced Labor in Vietnam: A Violation of ILO Convention 29
It's such a shame that this is still going on. A few years ago, I did a Human Rights based risk analysis on neighbouring countries (I am in Austrlaia) and found that of all South East Asian nations, Vietnam was best equipped to dramatically improve its human rights and fair trade status. At the time, it was potentially a new member of the BRIC nations (so I guess BRIC-V nations - not very catchy...) economically. At that time, Cambodia was leading the way in activism but didn't have the economy to support change. I would be interested in revisiting that study a few years on to see what eventuated - but then I fear very little positive change has taken place....
re: Forced Labor in Vietnam: A Violation of ILO Convention 29
Even if a person used to be a drug addict or an alcoholic, he doesn't deserve to be punished like this. They should have their own rehab center where they can recover from their addiction. People deserve equal treatment, after all.