Reports that slave labor might be used for the pipeline began appearing a year ago when there were indications the Vietnamese Government might be supplying large numbers of Vietnamese to work on the pipeline as a way of offsetting its massive debt to the Soviet bloc. Further reports this year indicated that by April some 10.000 Vietnamese had been sent to the Soviet Union for that purpose. Also. a former South Vietnamese Communist official. now living in exile. has evidence that by 1985. some 500.000 Vietnamese people would be deported to the Soviet Union to build the pipeline. In June of this year. the Frankfurtbased International Society for Human Rights estimated some 100.000 prisoners. including women and children. were currently working on the pipeline. Based on information compiled by the society. the conditions under which these prisoners are wnrking include heavy manual labor unaer brutal climatic and medical conditions with squalid living arrangements.
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deported