SYDNEY – Human Rights Watch has urged Australia to press Vietnam over its detention of political prisoners in the upcoming human rights dialogue between the two countries this week.

Senior government officials from Australia and Vietnam will meet in Hanoi for annual human rights talks on Thursday.

“Peaceful bloggers and activists face violence in Vietnam. In July alone, at least 11 rights campaigners, including La Viet Dung and To Oanh, were assaulted and injured by men in civilian clothes who appeared to be acting as agents of the authorities,” said a statement released by Human Rights Watch.

“Vietnamese bloggers and activists face daily harassment, intimidation, violence, and imprisonment – even the simple act of meeting a diplomat entails some level of risk for activists in Vietnam,” the report said.

The organisation says it’s also concerned about the treatment of people returned to Vietnam after trying to reach Australia on asylum seeker boats.

It claims eight people from two boats in April and July 2015 have been convicted and sentenced to up to three years’ jail for “organising for others to flee abroad illegally”.

Human Rights Watch’s Australian director, Elaine Pearson, argued that they were not punished for unlawfully bringing people into another country to benefit financially, which is the definition of people smuggling under international law.

“They were punished for leaving their own country and helping their families, relatives and friends who willingly went with them,” she said.

Human Rights Watch has also urged the Australian government to make the agenda and outcome of Thursday’s dialogue in Hanoi public.

– TiVi Tuan-san