Deputy Prime Minister requests handling of case of drug rehabilitation student in Soc Trang escaping

The Government Office has just issued Document No. 1341/VPCP-KGVX dated March 1, 2024, conveying the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Chairman of the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Prevention and Control, on the case of a drug addict undergoing drug rehabilitation who showed signs of intentionally causing injury and escaping at the Soc Trang Province Drug Rehabilitation Center.

Specifically, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang requested the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the People's Committee of Soc Trang province to strictly implement the direction of the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Committee at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National Committee on Drug Rehabilitation (Document No. 411/TB-VPCP dated October 12, 2023) and at the 2023 year-end conference, deploying key tasks in 2024 of the National Committee (Document No. 47/TB-VPCP dated February 7, 2024).

At the same time, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the People's Committee of Soc Trang province urgently deploy necessary and appropriate solutions according to their assigned functions and tasks; promptly overcome the consequences, stabilize the situation; clarify the cause of the incident, strictly handle violations in accordance with the provisions of law, and report to the Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Committee before March 10, 2024.

Deputy Prime Minister requests handling of case of drug rehabilitation student escape. — Deputy Prime Minister requested to handle the case of drug rehabilitation students escaping.

* Previously, The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has sent a report to the Prime Minister about a drug addict who showed signs of intentionally causing injury and escaping from the Soc Trang Province Drug Rehabilitation Center.

In the report, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said: Immediately after receiving press information about the incident, the Ministry's leaders sent a working delegation to Soc Trang to work with the locality and discuss solutions.

According to the report of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province, some students in rooms 01E, 03F, 04D of the province's large drug rehabilitation facility (called the rehabilitation facility) suspected that other students reported to the management staff of the rehabilitation facility that some of these subjects were using drugs inside the room, so at around 10:00 a.m. on February 23 and 8:00 a.m. on February 24, the above subjects beat and injured 4 students.

Immediately after discovering the incident, the rehabilitation facility reported to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and the Soc Trang City Police to quickly coordinate with relevant units to invite and work with 45 related students. During the work, at about 4:30 p.m. the same day, some students incited other students to oppose the police force; taking advantage of the chaos, 191 students escaped from the rehabilitation facility. During the task of preventing students from escaping, 3 riot police officers were injured.

Regarding the reasons for drug addicts escaping, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said: Through understanding the situation, a number of subjective and objective causes have been initially identified.

Regarding subjective reasons, due to the process of living together, some students had personal conflicts. Taking advantage of that situation, some students were too excited and reckless, attracting other students to cause chaos, oppose the security force, the law enforcement force and escape from the rehabilitation facility. The management, treatment, education and understanding of the psychology of students at the rehabilitation facility by officials and workers at the rehabilitation facility still have many limitations. Students participating in rehabilitation also have an uncooperative mentality, partly due to the living environment not being really good (unfriendly multi-layered fences, cramped living environment...).

Regarding objective reasons, the facilities are degraded and overloaded (average 10-15 people/room of 30 ^m2 ), making it difficult to manage drug addicts.

The report stated, "The drug rehabilitation facility was received in 1993 to perform drug rehabilitation functions. The current capacity of the rehabilitation facility is from 250-300 students, while in reality (February 24) it is managing 460 students, nearly 53% overloaded compared to the prescribed norm."

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has directed the facility to continue to coordinate with local authorities to find, propagate and mobilize runaway subjects to return to the rehabilitation facility. In addition, the functional subdivisions have not yet ensured the minimum criteria and conditions as prescribed in Decree No. 116/2021/ND-CP dated December 21, 2021 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Drug Prevention and Control, the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations on Drug Rehabilitation and Post-Rehabilitation Management.

The number of staff working at the rehabilitation facility has not met the minimum requirements, and is not enough to manage the number of students here. Currently, the rehabilitation facility has 57 officials and employees, 24 people less than the required number. Most drug addicts entering rehabilitation have limited qualifications, nearly 40% of students have criminal records, and about 25% are infected with HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis A, B, etc., and are not cooperative in rehabilitation, making it difficult to manage and educate students.

From this incident, the leaders of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs recommended that the Government leaders direct the People's Committee of Soc Trang province: Direct the provincial police to send a special task force to support the maintenance of security and order at the rehabilitation facility. The People's Committee of Soc Trang province directed the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to preside over and coordinate with relevant agencies and units to strictly implement the direction of the Provincial People's Committee and focus on implementing the following key tasks: Review the situation of facilities, equipment, vehicles, and personnel serving at the rehabilitation facility, report to the Provincial People's Committee for solutions to upgrade facilities, meeting the minimum needs to carry out drug rehabilitation work. At the same time, promptly overcome the consequences, restore the operation of the rehabilitation facility to normal according to regulations; stabilize the psychology and working spirit of officials and employees at the rehabilitation facility to continue to complete the assigned tasks.

Regarding drug rehabilitation facilities, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also recommended that the Government leaders direct the People's Committee of Soc Trang province to request drug rehabilitation facilities to review the internal rules and regulations of the facility to amend and supplement them appropriately to improve the quality of management and treatment of drug addicts. At the same time, organize propaganda, counseling and education for drug rehabilitation students to clearly understand the internal rules, regulations and legal provisions on drug rehabilitation so that students know their rights and responsibilities, feel secure and cooperate during the rehabilitation process at the drug rehabilitation facility...

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