CHINA: Drug users are subject to abuse in most of China's rehabilitation centers, according to a new report released by Human Rights Watch
Record ID:
1372226
CHINA: Drug users are subject to abuse in most of China's rehabilitation centers, according to a new report released by Human Rights Watch
- Title: CHINA: Drug users are subject to abuse in most of China's rehabilitation centers, according to a new report released by Human Rights Watch
- Date: 8th January 2010
- Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (JANUARY 7, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, ASIA-PACIFIC PROGRAMME, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ROSEANN RIFE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL'S ASIA-PACIFIC PROGRAMME, ROSEANN RIFE, SAYING: "Amnesty International has found, in fact, the reports we get are that the drug rehabilitation centres and the re-education through labour centres have very little difference. For the most part the inmates, the drug users, are treated the same way as they were previously. They are not getting any treatment like they're supposed to get and they're still made to do forced labour in most cases. And of course the conditions are brutal. We get reports of beatings and torture and sexual abuse as well. So it's very little change, unfortunately, in practice."
- Embargoed: 23rd January 2010 11:32
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Health
- Reuters ID: LVA55MW7EI6OHBXPI3JM5FIVAO8A
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Chinese drug users are routinely subject to abuse in rehabilitation centres which they are forced into and offered little access to treatment, often making their condition worse, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.
A law enacted in 2008 allows police and government officials to lock up drug users for up to seven years without trial, where they may be beaten, forced to work without pay and left with almost no way of appealing their plight, the rights group said.
"Amnesty International has found, in fact, the reports we get are that the drug rehabilitation centres and the re-education through labour centres have very little difference. For the most part the inmates, the drug users, are treated the same way as they were previously. They are not getting any treatment like they're supposed to get and they're still made to do forced labour in most cases. And of course the conditions are brutal. We get reports of beatings and torture and sexual abuse as well. So it's very little change, unfortunately, in practice," said Roseann Rife, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme.
China's Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to faxed questions asking for comment. But on Wednesday (January 6) it issued a brief statement demanding drug rehabilitation centres and prisons improve medical care for detainees.
The order, issued on the ministry's website (www.mps.gov.cn) in conjunction with the Health Ministry, said such facilities must have a certain number of nurses as well as doctors and must make sure those who need treatment get it.
Many of these detox centres are based in the southwest of the country, in Yunnan and Guangxi, where drugs from Myanmar and other parts of the Golden Triangle are smuggled across a porous and often mountainous border.
That in turn has fueled an AIDS epidemic, which is one of the reasons the government has tried so hard to crack down on the problem.
"You see the increase in the crackdown of drug users, buyers and sellers, on the security side, but you also see greater attention to the problem of HIV/AIDS because of intravenous drug users and the correlation there. So it's distressing in a way, that even in the provinces that have some very, very good model drug treatment centres, we also see a large number of people really in very basic administrative detention, prison, conditions," said Rife.
Experts in China and the United States found that drug users had been driving the AIDS epidemic in southern China over the last 10 years.
The epidemic mirrors changes in China as a whole, where experts estimate 700,000 people are infected with HIV, more than 70 percent of them unaware of it. In 2007, 20,000 people died of AIDS and 50,000 were newly infected.
China now has about 1.2 million registered drug addicts, although the actual number of users is believed to be much higher. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None