Hanoi: A hundred drug addicts escaped a compulsory rehab centre in southern Vietnam, officials said yesterday, the latest breakout to hit the country's controversial treatment facilities.
Many drug addicts in communist Vietnam are forced to undergo up to two years of rehabilitation in treatment centres across the country, but rights groups have complained of poor conditions and overcrowding.
Addicts in the southern province of Long An forced their way out of a treatment centre yesterday afternoon.
"Some patients hid in paddy fields or forests, some went onto the roads," Hoa Thanh Nien, deputy director of the provincial labour department, said, saying many were upset they were spending the annual Tet new year holiday away from home.
Around 74 patients have since been recaptured or persuaded to return with authorities searching for the rest, he added.
