Activists dismiss Formosa claim of fulfilled obligations regarding spill in Vietnam

Read RFA coverage of this story in Vietnamese

Activists have rejected a claim by Taiwan’s Formosa Group that it has fulfilled all of its obligations related to a devastating chemical spill in 2016 at one of its plants in Vietnam, saying the company has failed to pay victims adequate compensation and prove that it is no longer damaging the environment.

An April 2016 spill at the Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant polluted more than 200 kilometers (125 miles) of coastline, killed an estimated 115 tons of fish, and left tourism industry workers and fishermen jobless in four central provinces.

Since then, Vietnamese authorities have jailed several activists on charges of “making, storing, disseminating, and propagating information and documents aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” after they criticized the government’s handling of the disaster.

In May this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a letter to Vietnam’s government and Formosa regarding the “alleged prolonged adverse human rights impacts of the release of hazardous substances in 2016” by the latter and highlighting “the continued lack of access to effective remedy by those affected by the toxic discharge.”

It said that many of the victims had “yet to receive any financial reparation,” which it called particularly concerning “given that the deadly impacts of Formosa activities on marine life are still felt to this day,” and called on the Vietnamese government to outline the steps it had taken to “fulfill its obligations to protect against human rights abuses by business enterprises under its jurisdiction.”

In a response dated Sept. 30 and recently obtained by RFA Vietnamese, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation – Formosa’s subsidiary whose plant was responsible for the spill – informed the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that the matter was closed.

Formosa noted that after admitting responsibility, it had paid US$500 million in August 2016, which the Vietnamese government used “to compensate the affected individuals for their personal and property losses and loss of work, and to implement various measures to restore livelihoods, safeguard their health, and rehabilitate marine ecology.”

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Formosa called the disaster “an isolated environmental accident” and claimed that its Ha Tinh subsidiary is “currently operating in compliance with various laws and regulations of the Vietnamese government.”

It added that “because the non-business-related issues and issues involving governmental authority in your letter are beyond [Formosa Ha Tinh’s] province,” the company was “unable to comment or respond to them.”

Inadequate compensation

Activists and residents of areas affected by the spill dismissed Formosa’s claims, telling RFA Vietnamese that the compensation it paid was inadequate and pointing out that there has been no independent investigation into the impact of its steel plant’s emissions and waste on the environment.

One activist in Quang Binh province’s town of Ba Don who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that local officials work “haphazardly,” using subjective assessments to determine compensation levels.

He said that he owns a business repairing fishing boats, but was classified as an “unskilled worker” and provided 17 million dong (US$685) in compensation – an amount he claimed was only 20% of the damages he suffered from the spill.

Meanwhile, he said, many fishing boat owners were compensated hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong (100 million dong = US$4,025), but suffered damages “three to four times” that amount.

According to the U.N. letter, the funds provided by Formosa paid out a mere US$130 per household, which it called “markedly inadequate to compensate [for] the human rights abuses and violations experienced by the victims.”

Other activists told RFA that there had been no independent arbiter involved in the compensation decision and that Formosa had failed to address concerns about the environmental impact of the spill because it had made no information public.

Following the disaster, environmental watchdog For Mot Hanoi Green – now known as Green Trees – issued a report on the impact it had on the Ky Loi commune, in Ha Tinh’s town of Ky Anh.

It said that, based on a self-assessment by Ky Loi’s more than 1,000 households, Formosa owed 1 trillion dong (US$40.3 million) in compensation to the commune alone, and that the US$500 million it provided was not enough to make up for the damages suffered by all residents of Vietnam’s four impacted provinces, let alone provide opportunities for offshore fishing or restore the marine environment.

Lack of transparency

A member of Green Trees acknowledged to RFA that Formosa “has done something” in terms of compensation, but said the company’s claim that its steel plant is no longer polluting the environment is questionable due to a lack of transparency.

In its letter to the U.N., Formosa Ha Tinh said that the impact of its spill was nearly entirely managed by May 2018 and cited reports by Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ministry of Health that said sea water quality test results met national standards and fish were safe for consumption.

“Without a third party to monitor, all the results they give are unverifiable, especially since they may have cooperated with the Vietnamese government to turn a blind eye and circumvent the law,” the Green Trees activist said, adding that environmental laws in Vietnam are already “very loose.”

Another member of the group said that the Vietnamese government has suppressed activists to the extent that civil society groups have been unable to continue monitoring issues such as whether compensation is truly adequate and reaching impacted people, as well as Formosa’s waste treatment and discharge processes.

Wider impact

Other activists noted that one of the lasting effects of the disaster has been its impact on access to information, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in Vietnam.

By failing to inform the public about the cause of toxic discharges and to provide consistent guidance on the safety of water resources and marine life, the Vietnamese government has “contributed to creating an atmosphere of fear,” which in turn exacerbates the human rights impacts of pollution, they said.

Additionally, the activists said, when members of the public seek to share experiences, express opinions and submit reports through the U.N. Human Rights Mechanism on toxic waste discharge and how it was handled by Formosa and the Vietnamese government, they have been suppressed, criminalized and silenced by the state.

To date, only Formosa Ha Tinh has responded to the U.N.’s inquiry on the continued impact of the spill on victims and the environment.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.