A detainee in a government-run drug detention center in Vietnam. People in drug detention centers in Vietnam are held without due process for years, forced to work for little or no pay, and suffer torture and physical violence. The World Bank provided funding for various HIV-related services in Vietnamese drug detention centers through a project that concluded in 2012.
The World Bank has closed its eyes to risks to the human rights of the very people it seeks to benefit. The bank lacks adequate checks to guard against funding human rights abuse. The bank’s board will meet as part of its ongoing policy review, which provides an opportunity to remedy this policy gap, in Washington on July 23, 2013.