Source : the age
An Australian activist and two others have been arrested by Vietnamese police in what a human rights group has branded an act of “transnational repression”.
According to supporters, democracy campaigner Tran Hiep had been due to join his wife in Bangkok after travelling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to meet human rights defenders.
But the 50-year-old Melbourne man did not board his flight and has not been heard from since September 18.
Hiep, who founded the Australian Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking, was travelling with Vietnamese-Norwegian human rights activist Nguyen Duc Thuan to meet dissident Vietnamese activists for training in Cambodia.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said the pair, along with a third person, had been detained on September 18 and were accused of illegally attempting to enter Vietnam from Cambodia to “conduct terrorist and sabotage activities”.
Hiep was carrying an Australian passport at the time of his detention, according to the ministry.
Viet Tan, a pro-democracy diaspora political party, accused Vietnamese authorities of kidnapping. The group, of which Hiep and Thuan are members, claimed the pair had no intention of entering Vietnam, and authorities were fabricating the charges to “cover up an act of transnational repression”.
“This is a blatant fabrication intended to conceal the fact that the Viet Tan members were abducted in Cambodia and forcibly taken to Vietnam,” the group said in a statement released on Monday night.
Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates director Phil Robertson said Vietnam’s confirmation that the men had been arrested demonstrated that Hanoi was “arguably the most vicious and pernicious practitioner of transnational repression today in South-East Asia”.
“President To Lam is presiding over a ruthless police state that shows no hesitation in running roughshod over human rights while simultaneously seeking to expand its business links with the world,” Robertson said.
“The international community needs to realise that continuing business as usual with Vietnam is not acceptable when Hanoi is expanding its transnational repression efforts wherever it deems fit.”
Viet Tan and Robertson are calling on Norwegian and Australian authorities, and human rights organisations, to press the Vietnamese government for the immediate and unconditional release of both men.
“Mr Thuan is diabetic and requires daily insulin injections. He must be guaranteed full access to medication and medical care,” the organisation said.
Hiep’s wife, Chloe Dang, said she feared for her husband’s life. “My family and I are really worried about his safety, and we just only want to know where he is and what happened to him,” she told AAP from Bangkok airport before boarding a flight to Melbourne.
“My husband deserves protection, and I really hope the Australian government will continue to put pressure on Cambodia to do an investigation to find out where he is right now.”
Vietnam has stepped up its crackdown on dissidents in recent years, and more than 55 activists have been arrested under broad criminal laws in 2025.
Civil society groups and United Nations human rights experts have repeatedly warned of growing co-operation between Vietnamese authorities and neighbouring governments targeting activists.
“Their disappearance is not an ordinary ‘missing person’ incident. Both men are long-time human rights advocates and Viet Tan members,” Viet Tan said.
Dang, 36, said her husband’s disappearance had taken a psychological toll.
“It’s been 11 days and I’m really in the dark,” she said before the news from Vietnam, choking back tears. “I don’t know where he is and how he’s doing – it’s driving me crazy. Everything is really uncertain.”
The Australian government confirmed that consular officials were in contact with Dang, but declined to comment further.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian reported missing in Cambodia,” a department spokesperson said.
The families of the missing men have filed an appeal with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
AAP, Reuters
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