Once upon a time

Forty years ago, YouTube videos did not exist yet. Even had YouTube existed, no one would be available to film the horror of the Vietnamese Boat People (VBP) as they tried to cross the South China sea by unseaworthy wooden boats. They were not actors, but real people who risked their lives simply for reaching somewhere that they could live as human beings. Now, thanks to the Internet and YouTube, we can look back at what happened to the VBP forty years ago. We need to piece together these jigsaw puzzles to get a somewhat clearer picture of their journeys. But that is possible only with the survivors; for those who perished at sea, we can never know what really had happened to them. Eight of my family members were among this group of unfortunate people; none of them could swim. Subsequently, my remaining family members were discouraged and decided to continue enduring the hardship in Vietnam until they had a chance to leave Vietnam safely.

The price that the VBP paid for their journeys was high, not by the gold teals given to their journey organizers, but to the unforeseeable result of a coin flipping: either death, or survival. Their ordeal started with too many people crowded into the small boats, with no room for them to lie down, or to move around for many days. Then, either the boat engines quit, or they ran out of food and water. Many of them were attacked violently by Thai pirates who also raped the Vietnamese women and girls, and took them away for unknown purposes. Some of them were lucky to reach the shores of nearby countries, but were towed back to the sea as these countries did not want to get involved with “unwanted people/refugees”. The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) defines “A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group”. A more detailed and formal definition of refugees can be found in the 1951 Refugee convention. As of 6 June 1960, the Philippines was the only country in South East Asia that agreed to sign the 1954 Refugee Convention, held on 28 September 1954 in New York.

In their desperation, the VBP turned to spiritual praying, hoping they would be rescued by some supernatural powers. Those who landed on shores claimed that their prayers were answered. Those who failed could not share their stories with their families; their relatives kept on asking why their prayers (if any) were not answered. Indeed, some lucky VBP were magically rescued by strangers, such as Captain Jeon Je-yong who rescued 96 boat people in November 1985 in the South China Sea. A human bond strongly tied these VBP with the captain over so many years; they held a special funeral ritual for the captain in Santa Anna, CA, on December 14 2019 after they heard of his death in TongYeong, South Korea on November 17 2019. Like Captain Jeon Je-yong, some captains of other ships passing through the South China Sea also rescued the VBP and brought them directly to their own countries, such as Norway, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy and Argentina. Others landed in various nearby countries such as Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Either they had to survive on uninhabited islands like Pulau Bidong in Malaysia, or they were kept in refugee camps administered by the UNHCR, while waiting for their resettlement in a third country. Meantime some empty wooden boats bearing Vietnamese boat IDs were washed ashore, without humans. Some VBP died on the boats; their relatives had no choice but to throw their corps overboard; while in similar cases, some others had no choice but to practice cannibalism for their survival.  

For sure, the journeys have left scars in their souls. For example, a man, who was beaten by Thai pirates that raped his wife and daughters in front of his eyes, was so traumatized that he could not remember who he was. As another example, a teenage girl had her hair turned all white when her boat landed in the Philippines; she was among the cannibals. Landing alive in another country was only the first step; getting admission to a third country was another challenge as they were at the mercy of the UNHCR who tried to use their definition of refugees to allow who could, and who could not, be a refugee. They might have heard of some punishments by the victorious communists such as forbidding the children of someone, who was associated with the previous government and/or the military of the Republic of (South) Vietnam, to attend university. Or another punishment where they forced people belonging to the previous regime to the “new economic zones” which were in remote areas to build their own huts and to help the new government to clear the land (without any assistance). All of that was simply ignored. Some VBP could not speak another language besides Vietnamese; some other VBP did not have well respected skills simply because they were farmers or fishermen; they were not the first choice for admission to a third country.

Those who failed the UNHCR filtering had to continue living in a refugee camp, or were forced to repatriate to Vietnam. Although the UNHCR’s Voluntary Repatriation: International Protection states that repatriation must be voluntary, a forced repatriation took place on Feb 14 1996 in Palawan, Philippines. On July 17 1996, Sr. Pascale Le Thi Triu representing the Center for Assistant to (Vietnamese) Displaced Persons and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Philippines government permitting Vietnamese refugees to remain in the Philippines under the care of the Catholic church. Some other protests against repatriation also took place elsewhere, for example, in Hong Kong where Human Rights Watch reported Abuses Against Vietnamese Asylum Seekers.

By now, most of the VBP have resettled and integrated into the mainstream. The then-new host country has become their home country, in which they and their dependents have grown together. They love to defend it and they are willing to join the military. They try to excel in different areas such as science, technology, education, etc. A notable example is led by Nguyet Anh Duong, who is known as the “bomb” lady. Every year they celebrate the black Wednesday April 30 1975, not for the end of the Vietnam war, or for the victory by the Vietnamese communists, but as a reminder to their children and grandchildren of why they are here. Some of them could never forget the dark memory of being forced out of their homeland, as reflected in the following Vietnamese songs.