‘No human rights at all’: Vietnamese drug addicts undergo ‘work therapy’ while authorities collect profits
Rights groups accuse officials at the centres of skimming from those salaries or pocketing boarding fees paid by some users’ families, and say addicts are detained against their will
During four years of compulsory rehab in Vietnam, Trung spent his drug-free days glueing together false eyelashes as part of what authorities billed as valuable “work therapy” for his heroin addiction.
But critics say the work of Trung and tens of thousands of others is tantamount to forced labour that rarely helps users extinguish their addiction.
Police sent Trung to a state-sponsored rehab centre on the outskirts of Hanoi, one of 132 in Vietnam, where he says he faced routine beatings from guards and hours of labour for nominal pay.
“Life there, from eating, to walking, to sleeping, to working – there was no human rights at all,” explained the 50-year-old, who first began using drugs some three decades ago.
They’re incredibly successful in terms of generating money for government functionaries who run the centres
He started using again soon after his release in 2014 – up to 80 per cent of addicts from the centres relapse, according to official figures.