VZCZCXRO9481
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHHI #0450/01 1090912
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180912Z APR 08 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7646
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 4607
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 000450 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/IL 
STATE PASS USDOL DUS PONTICELLI, ZHAO 
USTR FOR DAVID BISBEE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV PINR ASEC ELAB EAGR ILO ECON VM
 
SUBJECT:  PRISON LABOR AND CASHEW NUTS IN VIETNAM 
 
HANOI 00000450  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
(U) This cable is Sensitive But Unclassified.  For official use 
only, not for dissemination outside USG channels or posting on the 
internet. 
 
1.(SBU) Summary: Approximately 60 percent of all the prisoners in 
Vietnam work, with 10 to 15 percent working on outside contracts 
including cashew nut processing.  While the GVN says the purpose of 
prison labor is "rehabilitation and education" rather than profit, 
income generated by prison labor in Vietnam is used to subsidize the 
operation of the GVN prison system.  Vietnam is the world's leading 
producer of cashews and there is currently a labor shortage in the 
cashew nut industry in Vietnam, but officials from the GVN Ministry 
of Public Security (MPS) as well as commercial cashew nut exporters 
told us separately that it would be unlikely for firms to outsource 
processing of cashew nuts for export to prisons because of the lower 
quality of work done by prison labor.  Post will follow up with MPS 
in an effort to determine the working conditions of prisoners 
engaged in cashew production, but it would be difficult to determine 
definitively whether any of what prisoners produce is exported.  End 
summary. 
 
GVN PRISON SYSTEM PARTLY SUBSIDIZED BY PRISON LABOR 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) On April 9, Poloff met with Senior Colonel Nguyen Huu 
Duyen, Chief, Labor and Vocational Training of the GVN Ministry of 
Public Security (MPS) Prison Management Unit and several of his 
deputies.  Colonel Duyen was frank and forthcoming throughout the 
meeting and provided Poloff with a brief overview of Vietnam's 
prison system and the use of prison labor for the "rehabilitation 
and education" of Vietnam's prison population. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Duyen said that the vast majority of prisons in Vietnam are 
run by MPS while the fewer military prisons are run, under a 
different structure, by the Ministry of Defense.  (Note: The Swiss 
Embassy in Hanoi, which runs a development program with the MPS 
Prison Management Unit, tells us there are 44 national prisons run 
by MPS and approximately 90,000 prisoners in the total network.  End 
note.)  Duyen said the GVN pays "thousands of billions" of 
Vietnamese Dong (Note.  16,000 Dong equal one USD. End note.) each 
year to run an extensive national network of prisons, of which a 
"small percentage" is subsidized by income generated from prison 
labor.  Duyen said overall conditions of prisons in Vietnam had 
improved a lot although they were still "not as good as in the 
United States or the European Union."  He noted that Vietnam 
generally could not pay its prisoners for their labor, although he 
hoped they could when "Vietnam became an industrialized nation." 
All MPS-run prisons are inspected annually by officials from Duyen's 
office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Supreme People's Procuracy 
(the GVN's prosecutorial arm). 
 
"REHABILITATION" IS GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF PRISON LABOR 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Duyen said the use of prison labor was "not aimed at 
economic purposes."  Rather, the emphasis was on using labor for the 
purposes of rehabilitation and education of prisoners so that they 
can become "model citizens" and contribute to the community upon 
their release from prison.  He said most prisoners had low income 
and education levels, and that labor "improved their health and 
attitudes" , taught them skills, and ensured they would have "value 
in society" upon their release.  He said labor also taught prisoners 
community and family responsibilities, and Vietnamese prisoners 
typically "felt happy" to "complete work projects."  The prisoners 
going through this system, Duyen said,  "typically won't recommit 
crimes." 
 
¶5. (SBU) According to Duyen, labor obligations are part of the 
prison sentence, and 60 percent of Vietnam's prisoners perform some 
kind of labor with 10 to 15 percent of prisoners working at "outside 
factories or workshops" with which the prison camps have contracts. 
He said these situations were "run like a business but were not 
profitable" as goods generated by "low skill" prison labor are 
usually low quality, noting that the quality was not good enough for 
exporting.  While prisoners are not paid a salary, they may earn 
cash if they exceed production quotas.  Prisoners may raise animals 
and cultivate crops, work in forestry, logging and on cashew nut 
plantations, perform carpentry, and produce furniture, clothes and 
handicrafts.  Duyen said that, according to regulations, prisoners 
who were physically able were typically required to work eight hours 
a day five days a week, and not more. 
 
PRISON LABOR LAWS RECENTLY UPDATED 
---------------------------------- 
 
 
HANOI 00000450  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) According to Colonel Duyen, prison labor is regulated by 
two major laws in Vietnam: the Ordinance on Implementation of Jail 
Sentences (issued in 1993 and revised in October 2007) and Joint 
Circular No. 07/2007, a new inter-agency circular involving 
cooperation among MPS, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Defense 
which provides guidance on prison labor, vocational training and the 
use of income earned by prison labor.  According to Duyen, all 
prisoners are briefed on the law governing prison labor.  Other 
sources tell us the push to amend the laws in 2007 was based on the 
desire by the GVN for greater transparency on income generated by 
prisons and the flow of money.  Colonel Duyen said the reason for 
the recent updating of the laws was that Vietnam wanted to "make 
sure that prison labor was based on the right purpose, 
rehabilitation and education."  Duyen noted that Vietnam continued 
to upgrade its legal system but still, he admitted, "more 
regulations were needed." 
 
PRISONER WORK ON CASHEW NUT PLANTATIONS 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Poloff raised allegations by family members of prisoners at 
Xuan Loc Prison in Dong Nai Province outside HCMC that were forced 
to de-shell 20 kilos of cashew nuts per day and were injured by 
exposure to toxins.  Though he was not familiar with the specific 
case, Colonel Duyen acknowledged that prisoners worked on cashew nut 
plantations and in the processing of the nuts in factories.  He said 
prisoners work on 1,000 hectares of cashew tree plantations 
nationwide and that there were, indeed, production quotas for 
prisoners; however, he said these were "much lower than outside 
quotas."  He said laughingly that if we had higher quota targets, 
the prisoners would not be able to reach them because the education 
level of the prisoners is too low.  However, if prisoners exceeded 
their quotas they could receive "a bonus," which he elaborated as 
"cash for their families," gifts or "privileges." 
 
¶8. (SBU) With regard to safety, Duyen said regulations dictate that 
prisoners wear gloves and masks, and ventilators are used in cashew 
nut processing factories.  He said there was "no physical torture," 
and all prisoners were required to wear safety equipment.  He 
attributed the specific complaint regarding Xuan Loc Prison, to the 
fact that most prisoners "don't like to work." 
 
MPS, EXPORTERS SAY NO CASHEW EXPORTS FROM PRISON LABOR 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) With regard to the use of prison labor to produce exports 
such as cashew nuts, Col. Duyen said "I would love to organize 
prisoners to produce goods for export," but this was not possible 
because of the low quality of goods produced by prisoners.  He said 
products produced by prisoners, including cashew nuts, were only 
purchased and used in domestic markets and by small companies.  He 
elaborated that only small, typically family-run firms contract 
production work with GVN prison camps.  However, the larger state 
export companies did not because of the low quality of goods 
produced by prisoners. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Asked to clarify, Colonel Duyen said "zero percent" of 
Vietnam's exports are produced from prison labor.  He elaborated 
that it was not technically against Vietnamese law to use prison 
labor for export goods, rather it was a question of good business 
and profitability. 
 
¶11. (SBU) In separate meetings recently, cashew exporters made 
similar comments.  ConGen HCMC Econoff recently visited a couple of 
large joint-stock cashew nut companies in southern Vietnam, together 
responsible for 20 percent of Vietnam's cashew exports, and found 
protective gear and health care facilities readily available.  When 
asked about the use of prison labor, export firm managers told 
Econoff that they did not use prison labor or know of anyone in the 
industry who did.  Hey added that outsourcing to prison camps would 
be unlikely for firms that want to manage their production chain and 
control quality. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Both the International Labor Organization (ILO) office in 
Hanoi, which works with Vietnam on forced and child labor concerns, 
and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which 
works with Vietnam on its penal system, told us that they did not 
have any information on cashew nut production for export in the 
penal system.  Other NGO contacts knew of the use of prison labor in 
state commercial ventures, especially in logging and forestry, but 
believed it was done on a small-scale and specific to certain prison 
camps in certain regions. 
 
¶13. (SBU) In response to a request from Poloff, Colonel Duyen said 
it may be possible for Mission officers to visit Xuan Loc Prison in 
 
HANOI 00000450  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Dong Nai Province to see conditions for prisoners and how labor is 
used.  The international community is generally not permitted access 
to Vietnam's prison network, although specific access requests by 
diplomatic missions and international organizations are sometimes 
granted. 
 
COMMENT: RELIABLE INFORMATION ELUSIVE 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) We are encouraged that the MPS seems willing to consider 
an independent visit to the prisons in question and will follow up 
in an effort to determine the working conditions of prisoners 
engaged in cashew production.  Commercial considerations may well 
mean that, as MPS and the exporters assert, little to no cashews 
produced by prison labor are exported.  Given the sheer volume of 
cashews Vietnam exports as the world's leading producer, however, it 
would be difficult if not impossible to disprove completely the 
allegations that some amount of cashews produced by prison labor 
finds its way into Vietnam's exports. 
 
MICHALAK