Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

Workers at a waste treatment plant have claimed they cannot cope with the constant discovery of human foetuses and stillborn babies that arrive in the rubbish apparently from local hospitals.

Picture Credits: AsiaWire

Directors of the plant in the southern Vietnamese province of Ca Mau told local media that they have uncovered around 300 dead foetuses and stillborns among the rubbish over the last seven years.

After finding the dead babies, workers reportedly washed them, covered them in burial shrouds and interred them in coffins on the plant’s grounds.

Plant general director Hoai Dan claimed that he has repeatedly informed the local authorities about the problem, asking for urgent action to be taken.

Manager Nguyen Hoang Tham said: “Whenever we find a foetus, we have them cleaned and buried inside the factory campus. Every month, we invite Buddhist monks to come and pray for them.”

However, plant officials have said that they are running out of space on the grounds to continue burying the dead babies and do not have enough funds to have them cremated.

Dan said: “We are seeking a comprehensive solution to prevent it in the future.”

In response, the local authorities have asked hospitals to tighten control over their medical waste and make sure foetuses and stillborn babies do not end up in wheelie bins.

However, Ca Mau Hospital spokesperson Vo Thanh Loi told local media: “Often, stillborn babies would be handed over to their parents after birth for funeral services. For foetuses removed via abortion, cremation is our go-to method of laying the unborn babies to rest.”

Reports said that the abortion of foetuses after six weeks is banned in Vietnam, although illegal practices are commonplace throughout the Southeast Asian country.