300 drug addicts escape from rehab in Vietnam

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Over 300 drug addicts escaped from a rehab centre in Vietnam, Hai Phong Provincial People’s Committee, said on Monday. The spokesman for Hai Phong Provincial People’s Committee, Pham Thu, said inmates broke out of the Social and Labour Rehabilitation Camp in Hai Phong City. However, hundreds of police were mobilised to maintain order.
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 “Some inmates did not want to work recently, got excited and caused conflicts among inmates, then beat each other,” Thu said. There were complaints from some about violence and low-quality meals. Others said they escaped after their treatment period was doubled to four years.

 “We have to work very hard daily but the daily diet at the camp is low quality, so many inmates were angry, inciting each other to escape,” one inmate said. The Camp Director, Nguyen Toan, said inmates who had stayed in the camp for two years, but did not make satisfactory progress, would have to stay for another two-year treatment period. Toan said, “Those inmates will be supplied 360,000 dong ($17) for their meal monthly.

 “Those inmates have to work to make money to improve their daily diet. “But their meals cannot be as good as theirs at home.” The camp’s security guards reportedly allowed the inmates to escape out of fear of clashes. Authorities told businesses and families to shut their doors for their own safety. The spokesman said 12 inmates returned to the camp while many others were taken home by family members. 

Authorities said they would ask the relatives to encourage them to return to the camp. Report says that several of such incidents have been reported across Vietnam in recent years following a government order to increase the period of mandatory rehab treatment from one to two years However, at the end of June, Vietnam had recorded about 183,000 addicts, many of them intravenous drug users.