The Rehab Archipelago - Human Rights Watch

every 6 seconds (at a rate of about 10 nuts per minute) for 8 hours. 116 Manual cashew
processing can have negative health effects, including skin rashes, other allergic reactions,
and respiratory problems.
Former detainees commonly told Human Rights Watch they worked between six and eight
hours a day in cashew production. Some worked longer: for example, Trung Khanh told
Human Rights Watch he had to work 10 hours a day skinning cashews in Center No. 2 (Lam
Dong province) before he was allowed to rest. 117
Tien Du, who spent six months skinning cashews in Center No. 5 (Dak Nong province),
described skinning cashews as “hard work.”
We worked from morning to early afternoon skinning about six kilos each….
You sit on a stool at a table and use a knife to remove the silky skin and
then sort them. 118
Former detainees told Human Rights Watch that cashew resins from the nuts caused their
skin to burn or itch and that that dust from the cashew skins made them cough.
Cua Lo spent two years in detention, the last 18 months of which was in Center No. 5. He
worked eight hours a day husking cashews for a private company to meet the daily quota
of seven or eight kilos of cashews, although he told Human Rights Watch it was customary
for the slowest person in the work unit to be forced to skin an extra kilo. When reflecting on
his period of detention, he stated adamantly “the work didn't help me recover” and
stressed the harmful effects of the work on his health.
I would sometimes inhale the dust from the skins and that would make me
cough. If the fluid from the hard outer husk got on your hands it made a burn. 119
116 See Practical Action, “Technical Brief: Cashew Nut Processing,” p. 5,
http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?products_id=77 (accessed July 28, 2011).
Cashew nut shell liquid is found in the shell around the cashew kernel. It contains 90 percent anacardic acid
and 10 percent cardol, caustic substances that can cause skin blisters. Because of these hazards, India has
banned children from working in cashew husking or skinning; see e.g. India’s Child Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act, 1986.
117 Human Rights Watch interview with Trung Khanh, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
118 Human Rights Watch interview with Tien Du, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
119 Human Rights Watch interview with Cua Lo, Ho Chi Minh City, 2010.
39 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | SEPTEMBER 2011