indicating the continued - if not increasing use of capital punishment. Between 1 October 2020 and 31 July 2021, for example, a 30% increase in executions was disclosed. Global reports on the use of the death penalty continually indicate that ‘the picture remains incomplete, due to paucity of information on executions in [a number of countries, including] Vietnam’ (Harm Reduction International 2020). Laotian and ve Nigerian nationals in 2021, all convicted for transporting and/or traf cking drugs. Whilst the overall picture of capital punishment in Vietnam remains obscured, including how foreign nationals t into this picture, several media and court reports on executions in Vietnam insinuate that foreign nationals are often caught up in Vietnam’s widespread use of capital punishment. A 2013 article in the South China Morning Post, for example, references the sentencing to death of a Thai drug smuggler, a 31-year old Nigerian man, a Thai design student and a 61-year old Filipino in the space of a year; all four individuals were convicted for drugrelated offences. These cases begin to suggest the extent to which capital punishment in Vietnam exists, yet the reality of foreign nationals sentenced to death, is likely to be far greater than media reporting suggests. Drug-related offences Drug-related death sentences Foreign Nationals fi fi fi fi Amnesty International believes that of the 1,000+ people on death row in Vietnam, among them are foreign nationals from Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria and Australia, to name but a few. Harm Reduction International (2021) estimated that eight death sentences were given to foreign nationals in 2021, with roughly a tenth of all known death sentences implemented for drug-offences in 2021 given to foreign nationals. Vietnamese courts imposed capital punishment on at least two Taiwanese, three % of total death sentences 2016 54 86% 2017 31 88% 2018 unknown unknown 2019 73 96% 2020 47 87% 2021 93 78% Sitting near the opium-producing ‘Golden Triangle’ of Southeast Asia - where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet - there are high levels of drug traf cking throughout Vietnam. VCHR (2016) remarks