Speaking at a meeting held on March 22, Nguyen Van Minh, deputy head of the city’s Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, admitted his department did not know what to do with people from other provinces who are released from rehabilitation centres.

In many cases, local authorities and their families refuse to accept them. “It is not right to continue to keep them at the centres but it not right to discharge them either,” he said.

So it is essential to have a framework for co-operation with provinces, he said, adding the Government should also spell out how to deal with former addicts who do not have any place to return to or are rejected by their family or community.

Colonel Phan Anh Minh, deputy director of the City police, asked the Government to spell out the criteria to recognize those who are at high risk of relapsing into drug use in order to allow them to use methadone, a drug substitute. Minh also called for clear policies to attract investment in facilities to provide vocational training and create jobs for former addicts and people in rehabilitation centres.

The department reported that city rehabilitation centres have admitted 3,424 addicts so far this year, an increase of 18.4 percent over the same period last year.

City districts reported that nearly 16,000 former addicts live in their localities.

The police reported that around 2,400 of them had begun to use drugs again.

More than 7,000 have found jobs and the city has provided loans worth VND9.8 billion to 1,692 of them to do business.