Major manhunt after hundreds of drug addicts escape Vietnam rehab clinic

Mass breakout happened after a fight distracted guards in the night

File Policemen try to prevent drug addicts from escaping a compulsory rehabilitation centre in the southern province of Dong Nai in 2016 (AFP via Getty Images)

Vietnam has launched a major police operation after almost 200 drug addicts escaped from an overcrowded state-owned rehabilitation centre.

Those who escaped over the weekend were undergoing court-ordered treatment for drug addiction in the southwestern Mekong Delta province.

Just over 100 of them were apprehended by Monday morning and returned to the Sóc Trăng Drug Addiction Treatment Centre but the a manhunt continues for another 97 who remain at large, the state-run Vietnam News Agency reported.

The patients broke away en masse as guards were distracted by a fight following an “internal dispute” in the facility on Saturday night.

Most of the escapees broke down the doors of their dormitory and ran out through the main entrance, scaling multiple iron fences. Some also fled through a hole they bored in one of the walls of the facility.

The deputy director of the centre, Nguyễn Văn Phước, told the Vietnam News Agency that one of the addicts said he returned after he was convinced by his parents to continue his treatment at the facility.

This picture taken on 9 November 2016 shows recaptured inmates, who escaped from a drug rehabilitation centre, being escorted by police back to their rehab centre in the in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau following a mass breakout (AFP via Getty Images)

Vietnam is a major drug-trafficking hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world.

The country has more than 30,000 drug addicts undergoing compulsory treatment at government rehabilitation facilities. Patients are forced by law to spend up to two years inside the centre under the country’s laws and policies aimed at tackling widespread drug addiction.

Inmates eating lunch in the dining hall of a drug rehabilitation centre in the northern city of Hai Phong in a picture taken on 16 November 2017 (AFP via Getty Images)

The majority of detainees are required to immediately stop taking drugs, known as going cold turkey, despite the risk of severe withdrawal symptoms. Patients risk being placed in solitary confinement if they violate the rules.

Most of the rehabilitation centres are reportedly overcrowded with an inadequate number of staff to provide care, support, and supervision.

Mr Phước said the Sóc Trăng centre has more than 460 drug addicts but just 60 members of staff, and stressed the urgent need for more staff and equipment to ensure security.

Last year, police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City arrested 65 people for allegedly smuggling 50kg of drugs, some hidden in toothpaste tubes, into the country. Authorities said that around half of the 327 toothpaste tubes that flight attendants were transporting last month contained drugs.