Blood cashews from Vietnam: forced-labour camps for Vietnamese drug users
Thursday, 08 September 2011 12:45
A new Human Rights Watch report claims cashew nuts and other Vietnamese exports are produced by drug addicts detained in forced-labour camps across the country.
Those who refuse to work are beaten, given electric shocks, locked in isolation, deprived of food and water, and obliged to work even longer hours, the report says. Joseph Amon, director of the Human Rights Watch health and human rights division, says what is happening at the centres "constitutes torture under international law." Titled The Rehab Archipelago, the report could potentially embarrass foreign companies doing business in Vietnam. For their labour, which is considered dangerous to their health, detainees are paid nothing or a few dollars a month.
More information
Report The Rehab Archipelago. Forced Labor and Other Abuses in Drug Detention Centers in Southern Vietnam, HRW 2011
Article From Vietnam's Forced-Labor Camps: 'Blood Cashews', Andrew Marshall, www.time.com
More than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have agreed to end their hunger strike in exchange for concessions by Israel, including a modification to its practice of detention without charge or trial. 
As of June 1st 2012, the IFHHRO International Secretariat in Utrecht, the Netherlands, will be closed. The secretarial work of IFHHRO will continue with less capacity and with volunteers.
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