400 Drug Addicts on the loose in Vietnam

By Dustin M Braden - 15 Sep '14 18:39PM

On Monday, local authorities in Vietnam announced that more than 400 drug addicts who were receiving treatment at the Gia Minh rehabilitation center, have escaped. They were receiving obligatory treatment for their addiction.

A public official, Nguyen Huy Hoang said that more than 400 inmates fled after breaking the facility's door and threatening the center's security guards with sticks, according to The Guardian.

The incident took place Sunday evening local time, near the port city of Haiphong in north-east Vietnam.

The police of the Thuy Nguyen district, where the rehabilitation center is located, started searching for the escapees immediately. 30 of them returned to the facility voluntarily. Some of them were found at their houses. The authorities said that they are still looking for the majority who are still on the loose, The Guardian reported.

Two other similar incidents took place in May 2010 and April 2012 at two other treatment centers.

The addicts are mostly turned in by their own families or local authorities. Even though these addicts are not criminals, the Communist government forces them to receive treatment in a rehabilitation facility for the duration of two years. Recently, the period for treatment was raised to three years in the Gia Minh rehabilitation center where the incident took place, the Guardian said.

Vietnamese authorities have been trying to curb increasing drug addiction figures, especially among the young population. The country is estimated to have 140,000 addicts. The two and three year drug addiction treatment programs are one of the major efforts to bring the numbers down, the government says.

Human Rights Watch described the conditions at the treatment centers as "forced labor camps." The organization also stated that the drug addicts at the center do not receive proper treatment and they are also at the risk of being violated physically. An expert from the United Nations said that these facilities should be closed according to the Guardian.