A museum with no building.
The places this museum documents cannot be visited, photographed or inspected. What is left is testimony. Tai Vách Mạch Dừng collects that testimony and turns it into a public record — one anyone can read, cite and argue with.
Who it is for
Anyone who wants to understand how detention in Vietnam actually works — and, alongside them, the researchers, lawyers, journalists and human rights workers who need a record precise enough to use.
What it holds
The account of each individual, a picture of each place of detention reconstructed from several accounts, a map of facilities across the country, and an analysis of the process that put people there. Three parts, linked to one another.
What it is not
Not a news site, and not a campaign. The record is deliberately slow and shaped like a case file: an entry appears only when it can be presented carefully, and not before.
Consent & safety
Đồng thuận và an toànThe person who spoke decides
Nothing is published without the consent of the person the account belongs to. They read their own entry before it appears, and can withdraw it at any time, without giving a reason.
Every name is changed
Every name on this site is a pseudonym; identifying details — dates, workplaces, family circumstances — are changed or removed wherever they could expose a person or their relatives.
Recordings are sealed
The original interviews are preserved but not made public. They exist for investigative and legal purposes only, and are opened only with the explicit agreement of the person who spoke.
People still inside
Where someone is still serving a sentence, the file is prepared together with their family and published only when doing so will not make their situation worse. Some files are held back for exactly this reason.
How to use the archive
Facility files may be cited freely, with the file name, its completeness rating, and the date you consulted it — that rating matters because it says how firmly the reconstruction has been established. Individual accounts may be cited by testimony code, never by a person's name.
To request sealed material for an investigation or legal proceeding, write to the project. Each request is answered individually, and the person the account belongs to is always asked again. The Methodology page sets out the limits of what these files claim.
If you have something to tell
If you were held in one of these facilities, or someone close to you was, this archive would be glad to record whatever you are willing to say. An interview lasts as long as you want and can stop at any point. Nothing is published without your consent.