On 3 September 2014, at around 8am, labour activist Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh
was detained at Noibai Airport whilst she was checking in to fly to
Austria to visit her very ill mother. Police confiscated her passport
and prohibited her from leaving the country.
Hạnh had acquired a visa to stay in Austria, from September 3 to October
18. The Austrian government approved her visa for humanitarian reasons.
Hạnh had recently reclaimed her passport (that is still valid) in Trà
Vinh. The visit had been planned a month prior. Hạnh went to Hanoi a few
days before the flight but did not visit any friends; she was worried
that visits could bring troubles to her trip.
Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh is a founding member of the Viet Labor Movement,
seeking to fight on behalf of workers’ interests. She was arrested on 23
February 2010, together with two of her peers - Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng
and Đoàn Huy Chương. Hạnh was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, aged
only 26. Over the space of three years, Hạnh was transferred to five
different prison camps: Trà Vinh, Long An, Bình Thuận, Đồng Nai and
Thanh Xuân.
Hạnh was granted unconditional release on 27 June 2014. Being an
unconditional release, there were no house arrest orders, and no
restrictions of movement either domestically or internationally.
Therefore, according to basic principles and the law of the state, Hạnh
has the right to travel anywhere in Vietnam or to any country in the
world.
Hạnh was at the airport at 7am on 3 September, waiting to check in at
8:30am. At 8am, airport security detained her, confiscated her passport,
and forbid her to exit the country.
Her mother, Trần Thị Ngọc Minh, had suffered grave illnesses within the
past month and had undergone vital surgery on 25 July 2014. Presently,
she has had three operations, each only 5 days apart. She has stayed in a
hospital isolation room for over three weeks. After 28 days in
hospital, Ngọc Minh was discharged and has been looked after at home.
She will return to hospital for surgeons to stitch up the incision on
her neck, as she is now breathing through a breathing tube.
Trần Thị Ngọc Minh suffered from a mouth infection, but as she is
diabetic, her eyes and her brain also became infected. She also has to
use anti-blood clotting medication while she awaits another hospital
visit for her heart. Ngọc Minh fainted upon learning the news that Hạnh
was detained at the airport.
Previously, Trần Thị Ngọc Minh had travelled out of Vietnam to many
countries, campaigning for her daughter to be released. As the result of
her efforts, Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh was released ahead of her original prison
term.
The Austrian government approved Hanh's visit, allowing her to care for
her mother after three years of separation. But the Vietnamese
government has treated its citizens differently; by arresting Hạnh and
confiscating her passport, they barred a daughter from fulfilling her
obligations to her mother.
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