Philippine refugee processing center

Philippine Refugee Processing Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC) was a large facility near Morong, Bataan, Philippines,
which was used as the final stop for Indochinese refugees making their way to permanent resettlement in other
nations.
Opened in 1980, PRPC was located to the south of Subic Bay and north of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. The
camp prepared Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees, including ethnic minorities (such as Chinese)
from those three nations, for immigration to a variety of resettlement nations such
as Canada, Norway, Australia, France, and primarily theUnited States.
PRPC was funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and was capable of holding up to
18,000 refugees at any one time. Coupled with a large population of Filipino and third-country employees,
PRPC operated like a small city with schools, hospitals, libraries, restaurants, sports facilities, fire
brigades, sewage treatment facilities, power generation facilities, water treatment centers, markets, and houses
of worship for four religions.
The main functions of the camp were to hold the refugee population long enough to
complete tuberculosis testing, wrap up bureaucratic requirements before departure, and—assuming the refugee
was heading to an English speaking nation—give them an opportunity for English as a second
language training. Virtually all refugees had confirmation before arrival at PRPC that they had been accepted to
resettle in the West and therefore the mood among the refugee population was frequently upbeat and positive.
The ESL program was operated by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and was funded
by the U.S. Department of State. ICMC provided training to adult refugees aged 17 to 55. Aside from ESL
classes, it offered Cultural Orientation (CO) and Work Orientation (WO). A similar ESL program was offered
to children by World Reliefthrough an extensive primary education program that took place within classrooms
throughout the site.
On February 21, 1981, Pope John Paul II visited the site and held a field mass which was attended by various
refugees of different religion. During his visit, he sought for love and compassion for the Indochinese refugees
and called for other nations to assist them in rebuilding their war-torn lives. A Vietnamese refugee crafted a
wooden cross and gave it to the pope as tribute. In honor of the pope's visit, the Bataan Technology Park built
the Replica of Papal Shrine near the actual grounds of where the mass was once held. It was inaugurated on
May 2, 2011, the same day when Pope John Paul II was beatified in Rome.[1]
PRPC funding came to an end in the early 1990s as the wave of Indochinese refugees went from a flood to a
trickle. The site was permanently closed and fell to looters and squatters, and eventually into disrepair by the
early 1990s. By the mid-1990s, the Government of the Philippines saw the error in allowing the site to be
reclaimed by the jungle, and turned the it into the Bataan Technology Park, loosely associated with the new
complex which had been built on the nearby site of the former Subic Bay Naval Base.
Vietnamese boat people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vietnamese boat people refers to refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship after the Vietnam War,
especially during 1978 and 1979, but continuing until the early 1990s. The term "Vietnamese Boat People" is
often used generically to refer to all the Vietnamese (about 2 million) who left their country by any means or
method between 1975 and 1995. This article uses "boat people" to apply only to those people who left Vietnam
by boat and arrived in another country. (See Indochina refugee crisis for an overview.)
The number of boat people leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000
between 1975 and 1995. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger and hardship from

pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms. The boat people's first destination were the Southeast Asian countries
of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Singapore plus the British colony of Hong Kong. The mass
flight of hundreds of thousands of boat people from Vietnam in 1978 and 1979 caused an international
humanitarian crisis with the Southeast Asian countries increasingly unwilling to accept ever more boat people
on their shores. After negotiations and an international conference in 1979, Vietnam agreed to limit the flow of
people leaving the country, the Southeast Asian countries agreed to admit the boat people temporarily, and the
rest of the world, especially the developed countries, agreed to assume most of the costs of caring for the boat
people and to resettle them in their countries.
From refugee camps in Southeast Asia, the great majority of boat people were resettled in developed countries,
more than one-half in theUnited States and most of the remainder in France, Canada, Australia, Germany, and
the United Kingdom. Several tens of thousands were repatriated to Vietnam, either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Programs and facilities to carry out resettlement included the Orderly Departure Program, the Philippine
Refugee Processing Center, and the Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Background
The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975 with the Fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army and the
evacuation of more than 130,000 Vietnamese closely associated with the United States or the government
of South Vietnam, Most of the evacuees were resettled in the United States in Operation New
Life and Operation New Arrivals. In 1975, the countries of Cambodia and Laos also fell to communist forces,
thus engendering a steady flow of refugees fleeing all three countries.[1]
After the Saigon evacuation, the numbers of Vietnamese leaving their country remained relatively small until
mid 1978. The cause of the growing numbers of refugees were the increasingly repressive policies of Vietnam.
One million people, especially those associated with the former government of South Vietnam, were sent to re-
education camps, often for several years.[2] Another million people, mostly city dwellers, "volunteered" to live
in "New Economic Zones" where they were to survive by reclaiming land and clearing jungle to grow
crops.[3] In addition, the Vietnamese government may have carried out 100,000 extrajudicial executions from
1975 to 1985.[4]
Repression was especially severe on the Hoa, the ethnic Chinese population of Vietnam.[5][6] The Hoa controlled
much of the retail trade in South Vietnam and the communist government increasingly levied them with taxes,
restrictions on trade, and confiscations of their businesses. In May 1978, the Hoa began to leave Vietnam in
large numbers for China, initially by land. By the end of 1979, resulting from the Sino-Vietnamese War,
250,000 Hoa had sought refuge in China and many tens of thousands more were among the boat people
scattered all over Southeast Asia and in Hong Kong.[7]
The Vietnamese government and its officials profited from the outflow of refugees, especially the often well-to-
do Hoa. The price for obtaining exits permits, documentation, and a boat or ship, often derelict, to leave
Vietnam was reported to be the equivalent of $3,000 U.S. dollars for adults and one-half that for children. Many
poorer Vietnamese left their country secretly without documentation and in flimsy boats, and these were the
most vulnerable to pirates and storms while at sea.[8] These payments were often made in the form of gold bars.
There were many methods employed by Vietnamese citizens to leave the country. Most were secret and done at
night; some involved the bribing of top government officials.[9] Some people bought places in large boats that
held up to several hundred passengers. Others boarded fishing boats (fishing being a common occupation in
Vietnam) and left that way. One method used involved middle-class refugees fromSaigon, armed with forged
identity documents, traveling approximately 1,100 km to Danang by road. On arrival, they would take refuge
for up to two days in safe houses while waiting for fishing junks and trawlers to take small groups into
international waters.[citation needed] Planning for such a trip took many months and even years. Although these
attempts often caused a depletion of resources, people usually had several false starts before they managed to
escape.

Exodus in 1978-1979
Although a few thousand people had fled Vietnam by boat between 1975 and mid-1978, the mass exodus of the
boat people began in September 1978. The vessel Southern Cross unloaded 1,200 Vietnamese on an
uninhabited island belonging to Indonesia. The government of Indonesia was furious at the people being
dumped on its shores, but was pacified by the assurances of Western countries that they would resettle the
refugees. In October, another ship, the Hai Hong attempted to land 2,500 refugees in Malaysia. The Malaysians
declined to allow them to enter their territory and the ship sat offshore until the refugees were processed for
resettlement in third countries. Additional ships carrying thousands of refugees soon arrived in Hong Kong and
the Philippines and were also denied permission to land. Their passengers were both ethnic Vietnamese and
Hoa who had paid substantial fares for the passage.[10]
As these larger ships met resistance to landing their human cargo, many thousands of Vietnamese began to
depart Vietnam in small boats, attempting to land surreptitiously on the shores of neighboring countries. The
people in these small boats faced enormous dangers at sea and many thousands of them did not survive the
voyage. The countries of the region often "pushed-back" the boats when they arrived near their coastline and
boat people cast about at sea for weeks or months looking for a place where they could land. Despite the
dangers and the resistance of the receiving countries the number of boat people continued to grow, reaching a
high of 54,000 arrivals in the month of June 1979 with a total of 350,000 in refugee camps in Southeast Asia
and Hong Kong. At this point, the countries of Southeast Asia united in declaring that they had "reached the
limit of their endurance and decided that they would not accept any new arrivals."[1]
The United Nations convened an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland in July 1979, stating that 'a
grave crisis exists in Southeast Asia for hundreds of thousands of refugees." Illustrating the prominence of the
issue, Vice President Walter Mondale headed the U.S. delegation. The results of the conference were that the
Southeast Asian countries agreed to provide temporary asylum to the refugees, Vietnam agreed to promote
orderly departures rather than permit boat people to depart, and the Western countries agreed to accelerate
resettlement. The Orderly Departure Program enabled Vietnamese, if approved, to depart Vietnam for
resettlement in another country without having to become a boat person.[11] As a result of the conference, boat
people departures from Vietnam declined to a few thousand per month and resettlements increased from 9,000
per month in early 1979 to 25,000 per month, the majority of the Vietnamese going to the United States, France,
Australia, and Canada. The worst of the humanitarian crisis was over, although boat people would continue to
leave Vietnam for more than another decade and die at sea or be confined to lengthy stays in refugee camps.[1]
Pirates and other hazards
Boat people had to face storms, diseases and starvation, and elude pirates.[12] The boats were not intended for
navigating open waters, and would typically head for busy international shipping lanes some 240 km to the east.
The lucky ones would succeed in being rescued by freighters[13] or reach shore 1 – 2 weeks after departure. The
unlucky ones continue their perilous journey at sea, sometimes lasting a few months long, suffering from
hunger, thirst, disease, and pirates before finding safety.
A typical story of the hazards faced by the boat people was told in 1982 by a man named Le Phuoc. He left
Vietnam with 17 other people in a boat only 23 feet (7 mts) long to attempt the 300 mile (500 km) passage
across the Gulf of Thailand to southern Thailand or Malaysia. Their two outboard motors soon failed and they
drifted without power and ran out of food and water. Thai pirates boarded their boat three times during their 17
day voyage, raped the four women on board and killed one, stole all the possessions of the refugees, and
abducted one man who was never found. When their boat sank they were rescued by a Thai fishing boat and
ended up in a refugee camp on the coast of Thailand.[14] Another of many stories tell of a boat carrying 75
refugees which was sunk by pirates and only one person survived.[15] The survivors of another boat in which
most of 21 women abroad were abducted by pirates said that at least 50 merchant vessels passed them by and
ignored their pleas for help. An Argentine freighter finally picked them up and took them to Thailand.[16]
UNHCR began compiling statistics on piracy in 1981. In that year, 452 boats carrying Vietnamese boat people
arrived in Thailand carrying 15,479 refugees. 349 of the boats had been attacked by pirates an average of three

times each. "578 women had been raped; 228 women had been abducted; and 881 people were dead or
missing." An international anti-piracy campaign began in June 1982 and reduced the number of pirate attacks
although they continued to be frequent and often deadly until 1990.[1]
Estimates of the number of Vietnamese boat people who died at sea can only be guesses. According to
the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at
sea.[12] Other wide-ranging estimates are that 10 to 70 percent of Vietnamese boat people died at sea.[17]
Refugee camps
In response to the outpouring of boat people, the neighboring countries with international set up refugee camps
along their shores and on isolated small islands. As the number of boat people grew to tens of thousands per
month in early 1979, their numbers outstripped the ability of local governments, the UN, and humanitarian
organizations to provide food, water, housing, and medical care to them. Two of the largest refugee camps
were Bidong Island in Malaysia and Galang Refugee Camp in Indonesia.
Bidong Island was designated as the principal refugee camp in Malaysia in August 1978. The Malaysian
government towed any arriving boatloads of refugees to the island. Less than one square mile (260 ha) in area,
Bidong was prepared to receive 4,500 refugees, but by June 1979 Bidong had a refugee populaton of more than
40,000 who had arrived in 453 boats. The UNHCR and a large number of relief and aid organizations assisted
the refugees. Food and drinking water had to be imported by barge. Water was rationed at one gallon per day
per person. The food ration was mostly rice and canned meat and vegetables. The refugees constructed crude
shelters from boat timbers, plastic sheeting, flattened tin cans, and palm fronds. Sanitation in the crowded
conditions was the greatest problem. The United States and other governments had representatives on the island
to interview refugees for restettlement. With the expansion of the numbers to be resettled after the July 1979
Geneva Conference, the population of Bidong slowly declined. The last refugee left in 1991.[18]
Galang Refugee Camp was similarly on an island, but with a much larger area than Bidong. More than 170,000
Indochinese, the great majority Boat People, were temporarily resident at Galang while it served as a refugee
camp from 1975 until 1996. After they became well-established, Galang and Bidong and other refugee camps
provided education, language and cultural training to boat people who would be resettled abroad. Refugees
usually had to live in camps for several months—and sometimes years—before being resettled.[19]
In 1980, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center was established on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines.
The center housed up to 18,000 Indochinese refugees who were approved for resettlement in the United States
and elsewhere and provided them English language and other cross-cultural training.
1980s surge and response[edit]
Between 1980 and 1986 the outflow of boat people from Vietnam was less than the numbers resettled in third
countries. In 1987, the numbers of boat people began to grow again. The destination this time was primarily
Hong Kong and Thailand. On June 15, 1988, after more than 18,000 Vietnamese had arrived that year, Hong
Kong authorities announced that all new arrivals would be placed in detention centers and confined until they
could be resettled. Boat people were held in prison-like conditions and education and other programs
eliminated. Countries in Southeast Asia were equally negative about accepting newly-arriving Vietnamese boat
people into their countries. Moreover, both asylum and resettlement countries were doubtful that many of the
newer boat people were fleeing political repression and thus merited refugee status.[20]
Another international refugee conference in Geneva in June 1989 produced the Comprehensive Plan of
Action (CPA) which had the aim of reducing the migration of boat people by requiring that all new arrivals be
screened to determine if they were genuine refugees. Those who failed to qualify as refugees would be
repatriated, voluntarily or involuntarily, to Vietnam, a process that would take more than a decade. The CPA
quickly served to reduce boat people migration. In 1989, about 70,000 Indochinese boat people arrived in five
Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong. By 1992, that number declined to only 41 and the era of the
Vietnamese Boat People fleeing their homeland definitively ended. However, resettlement of Vietnamese

continued under the Orderly Departure Program, especially of former re-education camp
inmates, Amerasian children, and to reunify families.[21]
Resettlement and repatriation[edit]
The boat people comprised only part of the Vietnamese resettled abroad from 1975 until the end of the
twentieth century. A total of more than 1.6 million Vietnamese were resettled between 1975 and 1997. Of that
number more than 700,000 were boat people; the remaining 900,000 were resettled under the Orderly Departure
Program or in China or Malaysia. (For complete statistics see Indochina refugee crisis).[22]
UNHCR statistics for 1975 to 1997 indicate that 839,228 Vietnamese arrived in UNHCR camps in Southeast
Asia and Hongkong. They arrived mostly by boat, although 42,918 of the total arrived by land in Thailand.
749,929 were resettled abroad. 109,322 were repatriated, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The residual
caseload of Vietnamese boat people in 1997 was 2,288, of whom 2,069 were in Hong Kong. The three countries
resettling most Vietnamese boat people and land arrivals were the United States with 402,382; Australia with
108,808; and Canada with 100,012.[23]
Vietnamese refugees resettling in Western countries
The Orderly Departure Program from 1979 until 1994 helped to resettle refugees in the United States as well as
other Western countries. In this program, refugees were asked to go back to Vietnam and waited for assessment.
If they were deemed to be eligible to be re-settled in the US (according to criteria that the US government had
established), they would be allowed to immigrate.
Humanitarian Operation (HO) was set up to benefit former South Vietnamese who were involved in the former
regime or worked for the US. They were to be allowed to immigrate to the US if they had suffered persecution
by the communist regime after 1975. Half-American children in Vietnam, descendants of servicemen, were also
allowed to immigrate along with their mothers or foster parents. This program sparked a wave of rich
Vietnamese parents buying the immigration rights from the real mothers or foster parents. They paid money (in
the black market) to transfer the half-American children into their custody, then applied for visas to emigrate to
the USA. Most of these half-American children were born of American soldiers and prostitutes. They were
subject to discrimination, poverty, neglect and abuse. On November 15, 2005, the United States and Vietnam
signed an agreement allowing additional Vietnamese to immigrate who were not able to do so before the
humanitarian operation program ended in 1994. Effectively this new agreement was the extension and also final
chapter of the HO program.
The Roman Catholic Church, given its long history with the Vietnamese people, facilitated the relocation of a
large number of Vietnamese boat people through its many Orders and charities. Involved in this work was the
work of the Vietnamese Refugee Office of Caritas Italiana, a major Catholic Italian charity, under the leadership
of Monsignor Tran Van Hoai.
Hong Kong adopted the "port of first asylum policy" in July 1979 and received over 100,000 Vietnamese at the
peak of migration in the late 1980s. Many refugee camps were set up in its territories. Frequent violent clashes
between the boat people and security forces caused public outcry and mounting concerns in the early 1990s
since many camps were very close to high-density residential areas.
By the late 1980s, Western Europe, the United States and Australia received fewer Vietnamese refugees[citation
needed]. It became much harder for refugees to get visas to settle in those countries.
As hundreds of thousands of people were escaping out of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia via land or boat,
countries of first asylum inSouth-East Asia were faced with the continuing exodus and the increasing reluctance
by third countries to maintain resettlement opportunities for every exile, they threatened push-backs of
the asylum seekers. In this crisis, the Comprehensive Plan of Action For Indochinese Refugees was adopted in
June 1989. The cut-off date for refugees was March 14, 1989. Effective from this day, the Indochinese Boat
people would no longer automatically be considered as prima facie refugees, but only asylum seekers and
would have to be screened to qualify for refugee status. Those who were "screened-out" would be sent back to
Vietnam and Laos, under an orderly and monitored repatriation program.

The refugees faced prospects of staying years in the camps and ultimate repatriation back to Vietnam. They
were branded, rightly or wrongly, as economic refugees. By the mid-1990s, the number of refugees fleeing from
Vietnam had significantly dwindled. Many refugee camps were shut down. Most of the well educated or those
with genuine refugee status had already been accepted by receiving countries[citation needed].
There appeared to be some unwritten rules in Western countries. Officials gave preference to married couples,
young families and women over 18 years old, leaving single men and minors to suffer at the camps for years.
Among these unwanted, those who worked and studied hard and involved themselves in constructive refugee
community activities were eventually accepted by the West by recommendations from UNHCR workers. Hong
Kong was open about its willingness to take the remnants at its camp, but only some refugees took up the offer.
Many refugees would have been accepted by Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but hardly any wanted to
settle in these countries.
The market reforms of Vietnam, the imminent [Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong|return of Hong Kong
to China by Britain] and the financial incentives for voluntary return to Vietnam caused many boat people to
return to Vietnam during the 1990s. Most remaining asylum seekers were voluntarily or forcibly repatriated to
Vietnam, although a small number (about 2,500) were granted the right of abode by the Hong Kong
Government in 2002. In 2008, the remaining refugees in the Philippines (around 200) were granted asylum in
Canada, Norway and the United States, marking an end to the history of the boat people from Vietnam.
{{other uses|Boat people (disambiguation)}}
[[File:35 Vietnamese boat people 2.JPEG|thumb|200px|right|Vietnamese boat people awaiting rescue.]]
'''Vietnamese boat people''' refers to [[refugee]]s who fled [[Vietnam]] by boat and ship after the [[Vietnam
War]], especially during 1978 and 1979, but continuing until the early 1990s. The term "Vietnamese Boat
People" is often used generically to refer to all the Vietnamese (about 2 million) who left their country by any
means or method between 1975 and 1995. This article uses "boat people" to apply only to those people who left
Vietnam by boat and arrived in another country. (See [[Indochina refugee crisis]] for an overview.)
The number of boat people leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000
between 1975 and 1995. Many of the refugees failed to survive the passage, facing danger and hardship from
pirates, over-crowded boats, and storms. The boat people's first destination were the [[Southeast Asia]]n
countries of [[Malaysia]], [[Indonesia]], [[Thailand]], [[Philippines]], and [[Singapore]] plus the British colony
of [[British Hong Kong|Hong Kong]]. The mass flight of hundreds of thousands of boat people from Vietnam in
1978 and 1979 caused an international humanitarian crisis with the Southeast Asian countries increasingly
unwilling to accept ever more boat people on their shores. After negotiations and an international conference in
1979, Vietnam agreed to limit the flow of people leaving the country, the Southeast Asian countries agreed to
admit the boat people temporarily, and the rest of the world, especially the [[developed countries]], agreed to
assume most of the costs of caring for the boat people and to resettle them in their countries.
From [[refugee camps]] in Southeast Asia, the great majority of boat people were resettled in developed
countries, more than one-half in the [[United States]] and most of the remainder in [[France]], [[Canada]],
[[Australia]], [[Germany]], and the [[United Kingdom]]. Several tens of thousands were repatriated to Vietnam,
either voluntarily or involuntarily. Programs and facilities to carry out resettlement included the [[Orderly
Departure Program]], the [[Philippine Refugee Processing Center]], and the [[Comprehensive Plan of Action]].
==Background==
[[File:Boat people family.gif|thumb|200px|A family of boat people rescued by a U.S Navy ship.]]
[[File:Processed Vietnamese refugees.jpg|thumb|200px|Rescued Vietnamese boat people being given water.]]

[[File:South China Sea....Crewmen of the amphibious cargo ship USS Durham (LKA-114) take Vietnamese
refugees aboard a small... - NARA - 558518.tif|thumb|South China Sea....Crewmen of the amphibious cargo
ship USS Durham (LKA-114) take Vietnamese refugees aboard a small craft, April 1975]]
The Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975 with the [[Fall of Saigon]] to the [[PAVN|North Vietnamese Army]]
and the evacuation of more than 130,000 Vietnamese closely associated with the United States or the
government of [[South Vietnam]], Most of the evacuees were resettled in the United States in [[Operation New
Life]] and [[Operation New Arrivals]]. In 1975, the countries of [[Cambodia]] and [[Laos]] also fell to
[[communist]] forces, thus engendering a steady flow of refugees fleeing all three countries.<ref
name="unhcr.org">[http://www.unhcr.org/3ebf9bad0.html ''State of the World's Refugees, 2000''] United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, pp. 81-84, 87, 92, 97; accessed 8 Jan 2014</ref>
After the Saigon evacuation, the numbers of Vietnamese leaving their country remained relatively small until
mid 1978. The cause of the growing numbers of refugees were the increasingly repressive policies of Vietnam.
One million people, especially those associated with the former government of South Vietnam, were sent to
[[re-education camp]]s, often for several years.<ref>Anh Do and Hieu Tran Phan,
[http://dartcenter.org/content/camp-z30-d-survivors Camp Z30-D: The Survivors], ''Orange County Register'',
29 April 2001.</ref> Another million people, mostly city dwellers, "volunteered" to live in "[[New Economic
Zones program|New Economic Zones]]" where they were to survive by reclaiming land and clearing jungle to
grow crops.<ref>Desbarats, J. "Population Redistribution in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" ''Population and
Development Review, Vol 13, No 1, 1987, pp. 43-76</ref> In addition, the Vietnamese government may have
carried out 100,000 extrajudicial executions from 1975 to 1985.<ref>Desbarats, Jacqueline "Represssion in the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Executions and Population Relocations" from ''The Vietnam Debate'' (1990) by
John Morton Moore http://jim.com/repression.htm, accessed 8 Jan 2014</ref>
Repression was especially severe on the [[Hoa]], the ethnic Chinese population of Vietnam.<ref>Butterfield,
Fox, [http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/boatpeople1.pdf "Hanoi Regime Reported Resolved to Oust
Nearly All Ethnic Chinese,"] ''[[The New York Times]],'' July 12, 1979.</ref><ref>Kamm, Henry,
[http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/boatpeople4.pdf "Vietnam Goes on Trial in Geneva Over its
Refugees,"] ''The New York Times,'' July 22, 1979.</ref> The Hoa controlled much of the retail trade in South
Vietnam and the communist government increasingly levied them with taxes, restrictions on trade, and
confiscations of their businesses. In May 1978, the Hoa began to leave Vietnam in large numbers for China,
initially by land. By the end of 1979, resulting from the [[Sino-Vietnamese War]], 250,000 Hoa had sought
refuge in China and many tens of thousands more were among the boat people scattered all over Southeast Asia
and in Hong Kong.<ref>Thompson, Larry Clinton ''Refugee Workers in the Indochina Exodus'' Jefferson, NC:
MacFarland Publishing Company, 2010, pp. 142-143</ref>
The Vietnamese government and its officials profited from the outflow of refugees, especially the often well-to-
do Hoa. The price for obtaining exits permits, documentation, and a boat or ship, often derelict, to leave
Vietnam was reported to be the equivalent of $3,000 U.S. dollars for adults and one-half that for children. Many
poorer Vietnamese left their country secretly without documentation and in flimsy boats, and these were the
most vulnerable to pirates and storms while at sea.<ref>"Special Study on Indochina Refugee Situation -- July
1979", Douglas Pike Collection, The Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University,
http://www.virtual.vietnam.ttu.edu/cgi-
bin/starfetch.exe?c3WGk7fZGwC.5GSATuRwDvOhJJrHoi37YUc3lHzCxC5@Dg6Q@i.EMsVl.BwT.mM49B
2oJjiYBplFyq.OeCcgrOYQN8lbdw@dsxmaCfsxVMY/2123309004.pdf, accessed 8 Jan 2014; ''Far Eastern
Economic Review'' December 22, 1978, p. 12</ref> These payments were often made in the form of gold bars.
There were many methods employed by Vietnamese citizens to leave the country. Most were secret and done at
night; some involved the bribing of top government officials.<ref
name="autogenerated1">[http://www.civilization.ca/cultur/vietnam/vilea03e.html Civilization.ca - Boat People
No Longer: Vietnamese Canadians - Leaving Vietnam]</ref> Some people bought
places in large boats that held up to several hundred passengers. Others boarded fishing boats (fishing being a
common occupation in Vietnam) and left that way. One method used involved middle-class refugees from

[[Saigon]], armed with forged identity documents, traveling approximately 1,100 km to [[Danang]] by
road. On arrival, they would take refuge for up to two days in safe houses while waiting for fishing junks and
trawlers to take small groups into international waters.{{citation needed|date=September 2008}} Planning for
such a trip took many months and even years. Although these attempts often caused a depletion of resources,
people usually had several false starts before they managed to escape.<ref name="autogenerated1"
==Exodus in 1978-1979==
Although a few thousand people had fled Vietnam by boat between 1975 and mid-1978, the mass exodus of the
boat people began in September 1978. The vessel ''Southern Cross'' unloaded 1,200 Vietnamese on an
uninhabited island belonging to Indonesia. The government of Indonesia was furious at the people being
dumped on its shores, but was pacified by the assurances of Western countries that they would resettle the
refugees. In October, another ship, the ''Hai Hong'' attempted to land 2,500 refugees in Malaysia. The
Malaysians declined to allow them to enter their territory and the ship sat offshore until the refugees were
processed for resettlement in third countries. Additional ships carrying thousands of refugees soon arrived in
Hong Kong and the Philippines and were also denied permission to land. Their passengers were both ethnic
Vietnamese and Hoa who had paid substantial fares for the passage.<ref>Thompson, pp. 150-152</ref>
As these larger ships met resistance to landing their human cargo, many thousands of Vietnamese began to
depart Vietnam in small boats, attempting to land surreptitiously on the shores of neighboring countries. The
people in these small boats faced enormous dangers at sea and many thousands of them did not survive the
voyage. The countries of the region often "pushed-back" the boats when they arrived near their coastline and
boat people cast about at sea for weeks or months looking for a place where they could land. Despite the
dangers and the resistance of the receiving countries the number of boat people continued to grow, reaching a
high of 54,000 arrivals in the month of June 1979 with a total of 350,000 in refugee camps in Southeast Asia
and Hong Kong. At this point, the countries of Southeast Asia united in declaring that they had "reached the
limit of their endurance and decided that they would not accept any new arrivals."<ref
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, pp. 83,84; accessed 8 Jan 2014</ref>
The [[United Nations]] convened an international conference in [[Geneva, Switzerland]] in July 1979, stating
that 'a grave crisis exists in Southeast Asia for hundreds of thousands of refugees." Illustrating the prominence
of the issue, Vice President [[Walter Mondale]] headed the U.S. delegation. The results of the conference were
that the Southeast Asian countries agreed to provide temporary asylum to the refugees, Vietnam agreed to
promote orderly departures rather than permit boat people to depart, and the Western countries agreed to
accelerate resettlement. The Orderly Departure Program enabled Vietnamese, if approved, to depart Vietnam
for resettlement in another country without having to become a boat person.<ref>Kumin, Judith "Orderly
Departure from Vietnam: Cold War Anomaly or Humanitarian Innovation?" ''Refugee Survey Quarterly'', Vol.
27, No. 1 (2008), p. 104</ref> As a result of the conference, boat people departures from Vietnam declined to a
few thousand per month and resettlements increased from 9,000 per month in early 1979 to 25,000 per month,
the majority of the Vietnamese going to the United States, France, Australia, and Canada. The worst of the
humanitarian crisis was over, although boat people would continue to leave Vietnam for more than another
decade and die at sea or be confined to lengthy stays in refugee camps.<ref
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, pp. 83,84; accessed 8 Jan 2014; Thompson, pp. 164-165</ref>

==Pirates and other hazards==
Boat people had to face storms, diseases and starvation, and elude [[piracy|pirates]].<ref name="Associated
Press 1979">''Associated Press'', June 23, 1979, ''San Diego Union'', July 20, 1986. See generally Nghia M. Vo,
''The Vietnamese Boat People'' (2006), 1954 and 1975-1992, McFarland.</ref> The boats were not intended for
navigating open waters, and would typically head for busy international shipping lanes some 240 km to
the east. The lucky ones would succeed in being rescued by freighters<ref name="gold">{{cite news | last =
Chang | first = Harold | title = Vietnam escape trail paved with gold | date = 1977-06-26 | publisher = South
China Morning Post | page =1 |url=http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/newspaper/view/02_09.01/127011.pdf}}</ref> or
reach shore 1 – 2 weeks after departure. The unlucky ones continue their perilous journey at sea, sometimes
lasting a few months long, suffering from hunger, thirst, disease, and pirates before finding safety.
A typical story of the hazards faced by the boat people was told in 1982 by a man named Le Phuoc. He left
Vietnam with 17 other people in a boat only 23 feet (7 mts) long to attempt the 300 mile (500 km)
passage across the [[Gulf of Thailand]] to southern Thailand or Malaysia. Their two outboard motors soon
failed and they drifted without power and ran out of food and water. [[Thai people|Thai]] pirates boarded their
boat three times during their 17 day voyage, raped the four women on board and killed one, stole all the
possessions of the refugees, and abducted one man who was never found. When their boat sank they were
rescued by a Thai fishing boat and ended up in a refugee camp on the coast of Thailand.<ref>United States,
Congress, House, "Piracy in the Gulf of Thailand: A Crisis for the International Community", 97th Congress,
2nd Session, GPO, 1978, pp. 15-17</ref> Another of many stories tell of a boat carrying 75 refugees which
was sunk by pirates and only one person survived.<ref>"Thai Pirates Continuing Brutal Attacks of Vietnamese
Boat People" ''The New York Times'', 11 Jan 1982. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/11/world/thai-pirates-
continuing-brutal-attacks-on-vietnamese-boat-people.html, accessed 12 Jan 2012</ref> The survivors of
another boat in which most of 21 women abroad were abducted by pirates said that at least 50 merchant vessels
passed them by and ignored their pleas for help. An Argentine freighter finally picked them up and took them
to Thailand.<ref>UNHCR "The Adventures of Len", ''Refugees Magazine'' May 1983, pp. 87-92</ref>
UNHCR began compiling statistics on piracy in 1981. In that year, 452 boats carrying Vietnamese boat people
arrived in Thailand carrying 15,479 refugees. 349 of the boats had been attacked by pirates an average of three
times each. "578 women had been raped; 228 women had been abducted; and 881 people were dead or
missing." An international anti-piracy campaign began in June 1982 and reduced the number of pirate attacks
although they continued to be frequent and often deadly until 1990.<ref
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, pp. 81-84, 87, 92, 97; accessed 8 Jan 2014</ref>
Estimates of the number of Vietnamese boat people who died at sea can only be guesses. According to the
[[United Nations High Commission for Refugees]], between 200,000 and 400,000 boat people died at sea.<ref
name="Associated Press 1979"/> Other wide-ranging estimates are that 10 to 70 percent of Vietnamese boat
people died at sea.<ref>Rummel, Rudolph (1997), [http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM
Statistics of Vietnamese Democide], in his ''Statistics of Democide'', Table 6.1B, lines 730, 749-751.</ref>
==Refugee camps==
In response to the outpouring of boat people, the neighboring countries with international set up refugee camps
along their shores and on isolated small islands. As the number of boat people grew to tens of thousands per
month in early 1979, their numbers outstripped the ability of local governments, the UN, and humanitarian

organizations to provide food, water, housing, and medical care to them. Two of the largest refugee camps were
[[Bidong Island]] in Malaysia and [[Galang Refugee Camp]] in Indonesia.
Bidong Island was designated as the principal refugee camp in Malaysia in August 1978. The Malaysian
government towed any arriving boatloads of refugees to the island. Less than one square mile (260 ha) in area,
Bidong was prepared to receive 4,500 refugees, but by June 1979 Bidong had a refugee populaton of more than
40,000 who had arrived in 453 boats. The UNHCR and a large number of relief and aid organizations assisted
the refugees. Food and drinking water had to be imported by barge. Water was rationed at one gallon per day
per person. The food ration was mostly rice and canned meat and vegetables. The refugees constructed crude
shelters from boat timbers, plastic sheeting, flattened tin cans, and palm fronds. Sanitation in the crowded
conditions was the greatest problem. The United States and other governments had representatives on the island
to interview refugees for restettlement. With the expansion of the numbers to be resettled after the July 1979
Geneva Conference, the population of Bidong slowly declined. The last refugee left in 1991.<ref>"Bidong
Island" http://www.terengganutourism.com/pulau_bidong.htm, accessed 15 Jan 2014; Thompson, pp 156-
160</ref>
Galang Refugee Camp was similarly on an island, but with a much larger area than Bidong. More than 170,000
Indochinese, the great majority Boat People, were temporarily resident at Galang while it served as a refugee
camp from 1975 until 1996. After they became well-established, Galang and Bidong and other refugee camps
provided education, language and cultural training to boat people who would be resettled abroad. Refugees
usually had to live in camps for several months—and sometimes years—before being resettled.<ref>"Galang
Refugee Camp" http://www.unhcr.or.id/en/news-and-views/photo-galleries/29-galang-refugee-camp, accessed
14 Jan 2013</ref>
In 1980, the [[Philippine Refugee Processing Center]] was established on the [[Bataan Peninsula]] in the
Philippines. The center housed up to 18,000 Indochinese refugees who were approved for resettlement in the
United States and elsewhere and provided them English language and other cross-cultural training.
==1980s surge and response==
Between 1980 and 1986 the outflow of boat people from Vietnam was less than the numbers resettled in third
countries. In 1987, the numbers of boat people began to grow again. The destination this time was primarily
Hong Kong and Thailand. On June 15, 1988, after more than 18,000 Vietnamese had arrived that year, Hong
Kong authorities announced that all new arrivals would be placed in detention centers and confined until they
could be resettled. Boat people were held in prison-like conditions and education and other programs
eliminated. Countries in Southeast Asia were equally negative about accepting newly-arriving Vietnamese boat
people into their countries. Moreover, both asylum and resettlement countries were doubtful that many of the
newer boat people were fleeing political repression and thus merited refugee status.<ref>Robinson, W.
Courtland, "The Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees, 1989-1997: Sharing the Burden and
Pass the Buck" ''Journal of Refugee Studies'', Vol. 17, No. 3, 2004, p. 320, 323</ref>
Another international refugee conference in Geneva in June 1989 produced the [[Comprehensive Plan of
Action]] (CPA) which had the aim of reducing the migration of boat people by requiring that all new arrivals be
screened to determine if they were genuine refugees. Those who failed to qualify as refugees would be
repatriated, voluntarily or involuntarily, to Vietnam, a process that would take more than a decade. The CPA
quickly served to reduce boat people migration. In 1989, about 70,000 Indochinese boat people arrived in five
Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong. By 1992, that number declined to only 41 and the era of the
Vietnamese Boat People fleeing their homeland definitively ended. However, resettlement of Vietnamese
continued under the Orderly Departure Program, especially of former re-education camp inmates, [[Amerasian]]
children, and to reunify families.<ref>Robinson, W. Courtland ''Terms of Refuge'', London: Zed Books, 1998,
p. 193</ref>

==Resettlement and repatriation==
The boat people comprised only part of the Vietnamese resettled abroad from 1975 until the end of the
twentieth century. A total of more than 1.6 million Vietnamese were resettled between 1975 and 1997. Of that
number more than 700,000 were boat people; the remaining 900,000 were resettled under the Orderly Departure
Program or in China or Malaysia. (For complete statistics see [[Indochina refugee crisis]]).<ref>Robinson,
''Terms of Refuge'' Appendix 1 and 2; ''Far Eastern Economic Review'', June 23, 1978, p. 20</ref>
UNHCR statistics for 1975 to 1997 indicate that 839,228 Vietnamese arrived in UNHCR camps in Southeast
Asia and Hongkong. They arrived mostly by boat, although 42,918 of the total arrived by land in Thailand.
749,929 were resettled abroad. 109,322 were repatriated, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The residual
caseload of Vietnamese boat people in 1997 was 2,288, of whom 2,069 were in Hong Kong. The three
countries resettling most Vietnamese boat people and land arrivals were the United States with 402,382;
Australia with 108,808; and Canada with 100,012.<ref>Robinson, ''Terms of Refuge'', Appendix 1 and 2</ref>
== Vietnamese refugees resettling in Western countries ==
{{Refimprove section|date=November 2010}}
[[File:Fluchtboot Cap Anamur.jpg|thumb|Escape boat saved by the [[Cap Anamur]] in late April 1984, placed in
Troisdorf]]
[[File:Cap-anamur-denkmal.JPG|thumb|Memorial and tribute of the Vietnamese refugees in Hamburg]]
The [[Orderly Departure Program]] from 1979 until 1994 helped to resettle refugees in the United States as well
as other Western countries. In this program, refugees were asked to go back to Vietnam and waited for
assessment. If they were deemed to be eligible to be re-settled in the US (according to criteria that the US
government had established), they would be allowed to immigrate.
[[Humanitarian Operation]] (HO) was set up to benefit former South Vietnamese who were involved in the
former regime or worked for the US. They were to be allowed to immigrate to the US if they had suffered
persecution by the communist regime after 1975. Half-American children in Vietnam, descendants of
servicemen, were also allowed to immigrate along with their mothers or foster parents. This program sparked a
wave of rich Vietnamese parents buying the immigration rights from the real mothers or foster parents. They
paid money (in the black market) to transfer the half-American children into their custody, then applied for
visas to emigrate to the USA. Most of these half-American children were born of American soldiers and
prostitutes. They were subject to discrimination, poverty, neglect and abuse. On November 15, 2005, the
United States and Vietnam signed an agreement allowing additional Vietnamese to immigrate who were not
able to do so before the humanitarian operation program ended in 1994. Effectively this new agreement was the
extension and also final chapter of the HO program.
The Roman Catholic Church, given its long history with the Vietnamese people, facilitated the relocation of a
large number of Vietnamese boat people through its many Orders and charities. Involved in this work was the
work of the Vietnamese Refugee Office of Caritas Italiana, a major Catholic Italian charity, under the leadership
of [[Monsignor Tran Van Hoai]].
Hong Kong adopted the "port of first asylum policy" in July 1979 and received over 100,000 Vietnamese at the
peak of migration in the late 1980s. Many [[Vietnamese people in Hong Kong|refugee camps were set up in its
territories]]. Frequent violent clashes between the boat people and security forces caused public outcry and
mounting concerns in the early 1990s since many camps were very close to high-density residential areas.

By the late 1980s, Western Europe, the United States and Australia received fewer Vietnamese refugees
{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}. It became much harder for refugees to get [[visa (document)|visa]]s
to settle in those countries.
As hundreds of thousands of people were escaping out of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia via land or boat,
countries of first asylum in [[South-East Asia]] were faced with the continuing exodus and the increasing
reluctance by third countries to maintain resettlement opportunities for every exile, they threatened push-backs
of the [[asylum seekers]]. In this crisis, the [[Comprehensive Plan of Action]] For Indochinese Refugees was
adopted in June 1989. The cut-off date for refugees was March 14, 1989. Effective from this day, the
Indochinese Boat people would no longer automatically be considered as [[prima facie]] refugees, but only
[[asylum seekers]] and would have to be screened to qualify for [[refugee status]]. Those who were "screened-
out" would be sent back to Vietnam and Laos, under an orderly and monitored [[repatriation]] program.
The refugees faced prospects of staying years in the camps and ultimate [[repatriation]] back to Vietnam. They
were branded, rightly or wrongly, as economic [[refugee]]s. By the mid-1990s, the number of refugees fleeing
from Vietnam had significantly dwindled. Many refugee camps were shut down. Most of the well educated or
those with genuine refugee status had already been accepted by receiving countries{{Citation
needed|date=April 2007}}.
There appeared to be some unwritten rules in Western countries. Officials gave preference to married couples,
young families and women over 18 years old, leaving single men and minors to suffer at the camps for years.
Among these unwanted, those who worked and studied hard and involved themselves in constructive refugee
community activities were eventually accepted by the West by recommendations from UNHCR workers. Hong
Kong was open about its willingness to take the remnants at its camp, but only some refugees took up the offer.
Many refugees would have been accepted by Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but hardly any wanted to
settle in these countries.
The market reforms of Vietnam, the imminent [Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong|return of Hong Kong
to China by Britain] and the financial incentives for voluntary return to Vietnam caused many boat people to
return to Vietnam during the 1990s. Most remaining asylum seekers were voluntarily or forcibly repatriated to
Vietnam, although a small number (about 2,500) were granted the right of abode by the Hong Kong
Government in 2002. In 2008, the remaining refugees in the Philippines (around 200) were granted asylum in
Canada, Norway and the United States, marking an end to the history of the boat people from Vietnam.
==Memorials==
[[File:Hamburg.Gedenkstein.Cap Anamur.wmt.jpg|thumb|Bronze plaque at [[Port of Hamburg]] with
thanksgiving of Vietnamese refugees by [[Cap Anamur]] ships]]
[[File:Vietname Boat People Memorial.JPG|thumb|Vietnamese Boat People Memorial, in Brisbane, QLD,
dedicated 02.12.2012, executed by Phillip Piperides]]
[[File:Boat People Memorial, Westminster, California.jpg|thumb|Boat People Memorial, Westminster,
California]]
Some monuments and memorials were erected to commemorate the dangers and the people, who died on the
journey to escape from Vietnam. Among them are:
# [[Grand-Saconnex|Grand-Saconnex,]] Switzerland (February,
2006).<ref>[http://www.anhduong.net/Tincongdong/Jan06/DaiTuongNiem.htm Tượng đài ở Thụy Sĩ]</ref>
# City of [[Santa Ana, California]], USA (February,
2006).<ref>http://hoahao.org/default.asp?catid=10&nid=7738</ref>

# [[Liège]], [[Belgium]] (July,
2006).<ref>[http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/2006/07/06/InaugurationVnBoatPeopleMonumentBi_DHi
eu/ Radio Free Asia: Tượng đài ở Bỉ]</ref>
# [[Hamburg]], Germany (October 2006).<ref>{{de icon}}
[http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Kurzmeldungen/DE/2009/09/gedenkstein.html Report (Gedenkstein der
Dankbarkeit)] and
[http://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Bilderstrecken/20090912_Festakt_Hamburg.html?nn=109628&notFirst=
false#Start Images] of inauguration ceremony on the site of the Ministry of Interior
Germany</ref><ref>[http://www.viengiac.de/vn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=175&Itemid=
33 Tượng đài Hamburg]</ref>
# [[Troisdorf]], Germany (May, 2007) (tháng 5,
2007)<ref>[http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/BoatPeopleMonumentInaugurationCelebrationGermany_
MThuy-20070501.html?searchterm=None Radio Free Asia: Tượng đài ở
Đức]</ref><ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/vietnamese/vietnam/story/2007/05/070502_viet_monument.shtml</ref>
# [[Footscray]] (Jensen Park Reserve of [[Melbourne]]), Australia (June,
2008).<ref>[http://franklin.dpc.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/newmedia.nsf/e741a3eefa539841ca256c8c0016
eaac/15919ba0bf49572cca25747300057667!OpenDocument Hulls unveils Vietnamese Boat People
Memorial]</ref>
# [[Bagneux, Hauts-de-Seine]], France (May 11,
2008).<ref>[http://www.vnbp.org/vietnamese/memorial/monuments/france/index.htm Hình ảnh công trình đài
tưởng niệm tại Bagneaux, Pháp, trong khuôn viên chùa Khánh
Anh]</ref><ref>[http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/boat-people-once-accused-by-hanoi-as-traitor-and-
now-vietnam-thousands-of-miles-away-intestine-sections-05012009155937.html Liệt kê đài tưởng niệm
Thuyền nhân trên thế giới]</ref>
# [[Westminster, California]] (April, 2009), by ViVi Vo Hung
Kiet.<ref>[http://www.vietbao.com/?ppid=45&pid=45&nid=142504 ''Việt Báo'': Tượng đài Thuyền nhân ở
Westminster]</ref><ref>[http://calitoday.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=71fa7e95106aaf56228cd8a28
4b4e334 Thành phố Westminster và Tượng-đài Thuyền-nhân Việt-Nam]</ref><ref>[http://www.nguoi-
viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=94059&z=1 ''Người Việt'': Khánh-thành tượng-đài Westminster]</ref>
# Port [[Landungsbruecken]] ([[Hamburg]]), Germany (September,
2009).<ref>[http://tvvn.org/tvvn/index.php?categoryid=68&p2_articleid=546 Tường thuật buổi lễ Khánh Thành
Tượng Đài Tị Nạn
Hamburg]</ref><ref>[http://www.lyhuong.net/viet/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1513:15
13&catid=37:bandoc&Itemid=56 Ngày tri ân nhân dân Đức]</ref>
# [[Galang Island]], Indonesia (demolished)
# [[Bidong Island]], Malaysia
# Washington D.C., United States.
# [[Geneva]], Switzerland
# Canada: Roundabout "Rond Point Saigon", André Malraux intersection avenue and boulevard des Genets of
Bussy-Saint-Georges commune, town of Marne-la-Vallée (September 12,
2010).,<ref>[http://www.tuongdaibussy.com/ Tượng đài Bussy]</ref> statue by sculptor Vũ Đình
Lâm.<ref>[http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/The-opening-of-vietnamese-boat-people-monument-in-
france-TuongAn-09212010223327.html "Hướng về tương lai với ''Niềm Mơ Ước của Mẹ''" Khánh thành tượng
đài thuyền nhân]</ref>
# [[Bankstown]], NSW, Australia (November, 2011) at Saigon Place.<ref>[http://vietluanonline.com/11-11-
11/KhanhthanhtuongdaithuyennhanVNoSydney.html Khánh thành tượng đài thuyền nhân Việt Nam ở
Sydney]</ref> This is the bronze statue, weighing more than three tons by sculptor Terrence Plowright.

# Tarempa in [[Anambas]], [[Indonesia]].<ref>[http://www.nguoi-
viet.com/absolutenm2/templates/?a=141320&z=3 Khắc tên thuyền nhân trên đài tưởng niệm Indonesia]</ref>
# [[Brisbane, Queensland]], Australia (December 2, 2012) by Phillip Piperides.<ref>[http://www.nguoi-
viet.com/absolutenm2/templates/viewarticlesNVO.aspx?articleid=158835&zoneid=3#.UMQtt4XlE7A
Queensland khánh thành tượng đài Thuyền nhân]</ref>
# Perth, Western Australia, Australia (November 1, 2013) in Wade Street Park Reserve. 5.5 meter high
monument of sculptor Coral Lowry.<ref>[http://perthvoiceinteractive.com/2013/11/01/boat-people-say-thanks-
australia/ "Boat people say ‘thanks, Australia’"]</ref>
==See also==
* [[Bắt đầu từ nay]], the frequently broadcast Vietnamese radio [[Public service announcement|PSA]] on
[[Radio Television Hong Kong]] (RTHK) in [[Hong Kong]] during the late [[1980s in Hong Kong|1980s]] and
early [[1990s in Hong Kong|1990s]], announcing the policy of [[Comprehensive Plan of Action]] on
Vietnamese boat people.
* ''[[Turtle Beach (film)|Turtle Beach]]'', 1992 Australian film about raising awareness for the plight of the boat
people
* ''[[Boat People (film)]]'', a narrative film made by Hong Kong director [[Ann Hui]], based on research on
Vietnamese refugees
* [[Indochina refugee crisis]]
* ''[[Journey from the Fall]]'', an independent film on the same subject
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Martin Tsamenyi ''The Vietnamese boat people and international law'', Nathan: Griffith University, 1981
* Steve Roberts ''From Every End of This Earth: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America''
(novel, a.o. on Vietnamese family), 2009.
* [[Georges Claude Guilbert]] ''Après Hanoï: Les mémoires brouillés d'une princesse vietnamienne'' (novel, on
Vietnamese woman and her boat people family), 2011.
* Kim Thúy ''Ru'',2009
* [[Min Zhou|Zhou, Min]] and [[Carl L. Bankston]] III ''[[Growing Up American]]: How Vietnamese Children
Adapt to Life in the United States'' New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1998.ISBN 978-0-87154-995-2.
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://www.throughmyeyes.org.uk/server/show/nav.23334 Through My Eyes Website] Imperial War
Museum - Online Exhibition (images, video and interviews with Vietnam War refugees, including Boat People)
* [http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cultur/vietnam/viint00e.shtml The Canadian Museum of
Civilization - Boat People No Longer]
* [http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/society/immigration/boat-people-a-refugee-crisis/topic---boat-people-
a-refugee-crisis.html Boat people - a refugee crisis]: [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] Archives
footage
* [http://www.bpsos.org/ Boat People S.O.S]

* [http://www.vnbp.org/ Archive of Vietnamese Boatpeople]
* [http://multiculturalcanada.ca/vietnamese Oral History Interviews with 15 Canadian Vietnamese Boat People]
*
[http://web.archive.org/web/20030405185711/http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/vietnam/story/boat.peopl
e/ Vietnam's boat people: 25 years of fears, hopes and dreams], [[CNN]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boat People}}
[[Category:Human migration]]
[[Category:Vietnamese diaspora]]
[[Category:History of Vietnam]]
[[Category:Vietnamese migration]]
[[Category:Vietnamese refugees]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:Aftermath of the Vietnam War]]
HISTORY
http://morongmuseum.wordpress.com/history/
The Philippine Refugee Processing Center was a village in Morong, Bataan which was used from 1980 to 1994
as the final stop for Indochinese refugees prior to their final settlement in Canada, Australia, France, Norway
and the United States. Migrants were mainly from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who took flight mainly via
small fishing boats. Many were rescued by passing cargo ships and some actually landed in the Philippines.
The facility was funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The camp was
mainly to ensure tuberculosis testing, to hold the migrants prior to final arrangements at the destination, and to
teach English as a second language for those destined to English-speaking countries. ESL was provided by the
International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and funded by the US State Department. A similar
smaller language program and primary education program was run by World Relief.
The camp was designed to handle a maximum of 18,000 people and at one time the population in the camp
reached 15,000. It is estimated that the camp took in a total of 400,000 people in its decade of history.
A former camp worker had this to say when he visited: “it was hard to imagine that 18,000 people at a time had
lived here; their billets had gone without trace, bulldozed, I was told, some years back. The Camp had been
divided into ten neighborhoods, each neighborhood having thirty buildings, with ten billets each, and each billet
accommodated six people or more; there they cooked, ate, slept, studied, worried, argued, fought, played, sang,
loved, planned, prayed, dreamed, and made do with what they had. During the time I spent there, over 100,000
people from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos passed through, most spending about six months there, but some
getting stuck and having to wait much longer; there were others, too, who never left the Camp, but were

resettled, sooner than they expected or wanted, in what came to be known as Neighborhood 11: the cemetery.”
The volume of people trickled down towards 1990 and the camp was eventually decommissioned in 1994.
ABOUT
The Boat People Museum was set up to commemorate the former Philippine Refugee Processing Center in
Morong, Bataan which was used in 1980-1994 as a temporary resettlement and preparation area for boat
refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The Museum is about the story of suffering, people diaspora, and
the triumph of the human spirit. It is about compassion, cooperation among various peoples, NGOs and
governments, and about the United Nations. It is a story which unfortunately repeats itself. Yet there are small
untold heroes. The Museum was set up with meager funds and volunteer help, mainly from those who were
involved earlier as employees of the camp. Photos and small memorabilia were gathered from the villagers, as
well as from visitors. An authentic boat that was used in the migration was refurbished and is a real monument
to this period.
BTPI MUSEUM TO BE RELAUNCHED
Posted on May 10, 2013
the BTPI Museum, Library and Archives is to be relaunched as The Boat People Museum. The relaunching
means a new website, the one you are reading now. It also means a new signage and entrance design. It will also
include slowly reproducing the photo exhibits into a more modern exhibition using large format photos. As part
of the effort we are also contemplating on giving the project to a non-profit organization so it can raise funding
for the museum’s improvement.
LOCATION
The Boat People Museum is located at the Bataan Techno Park Inc. (BTPI) in Morong, Bataan. You drive to
Subic Bay and follow the Morong Road to Anvaya Cove. Before reaching Morong there is a fork, the left leads
to BTPI and Atmanda Eco-Park, while the right of the fork leads to Anvaya Cove. The area is only 20 minutes
drive from Subic Bay and Olongapo.
Opening Hours: Open Everyday 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Admission: P20.00 per person.
Food and Accommodations: Available next door at Atmanda Ecopark.

Bataan Technology Park, Home of Atmanda
Ecopark http://www.bcda.gov.ph/freeport_and_ecozones/show/13
In March 1997, the entire municipality of Morong was proclaimed as the Morong Special Economic Zone(MSEZ), with theBataan Technology Park
as its Main Zone. The Park is home to a resort called, Atmanda Ecopark.
This 365-hectare property, is oncethe site of thePhilippine Refugee Processing Center, which offered friendship, hope and new beginnings to some
400,000 refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The Park houses 11 symbolic monuments and shrines constructed by theformer Indo-Chinese
refugees. Read More
In 2011, BCDA and officials of the Bataan Technology Park, Inc. (BTPI) and guests unveiled a shrine commemorating Blessed PopeJohn Paul II,
who celebrated Holy Mass before some 20,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian refugees three decades ago on February 21, 1981. To date, the
Park maintains its identity as a “histo-cultural”, educational destination, owing to its rich history as theformer PRPC, where thePhilippines and its
peopleplayed its humanitarian role as host to some 400,000 refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during theVietnam War in the70’s.
Carrying on as a place of hope and concord, there are plans to transform thepark into a spiritualpilgrimage destination for theinternational
community.
Getting There
Overlooking theSouth China Sea, the Park is situated in themost advanced and dynamic region in thecountry, as it lies within the area of the
Manila-Clark-Subic economic triad. It is just a 20-minute drive from Subic and 2 ½ hour-drive from Manila via the SCTEX. Aligned with the
development of Ayala Land's Anvaya Cove, the Atmanda Ecopark can reached by sea through the operation of a passenger terminal for a direct ferry
transport to Manilaat theBinanga Port in Morong.
Investing in the Park
Investors who wish to put up can enjoy the following benefits: a) 5% levy on Gross Income Earned (GIE) in lieu of all national and local taxes and
duties; b) tax and duty-freeimportation of raw materials and capital equipment; and c) management of the zone as a separatecustoms territory,
ensuring free flow or movement of goods and capital equipment within, into and exported our of the zone.
The Atmanda Ecopark provides vast agricultural land where there is available agri-industrial-based labor. It enjoys thebenefits and incentives of a
Special Economic Zone. With its size and accessibility, it showcases its potentialas a retirement haven, a corporatetraining center, and a zone for
environment-friendly small- and medium-scale industries through its increased accessibility, investor perks, and proximity to the Subic Freeport
Zone and the Clark Freeport Zone—not to mention themushrooming residential and resort developments along the Bataan coastline.
Why the name "Atmanda"?
“Atmamay refer to the“Self.” (Persian): The whole universe obeys thewill of Atma or the“Self.” Iqbal a famous Persian Philosopher condemned
self-destruction, for him the aim of life is self-realization and self-knowledge. There are stages through which the Atmaor “Self” has to pass before
finally arriving at its point of perfection. Similarly, Atman may refer to: Ātman (Hinduism), a means ‘self’ Ātman (Buddhism), a reference to the
essential self Atman (Jainism), a philosophical term used within Jainism to identify the soul.
“Since war and peace are paths humanity has undergone in the path of self-realization and self-knowledge then it would be fitting to encapsulate the
commonality of the three dominant groups of Indochinese refugees. Vietnamese are predominantly MahayanaBuddhists, Cambodians (Khmer) are
predominantly Buddhist, one which blends elements of Theravada Buddhism, Hinduism, animism etc and finally Laotians who are p redominantly
Theravada Buddhist, with Animist and some Hindu influences.”
BATAAN TECHNOLOGY PARK INC.
(Morong, Bataan)
http://www.bataan.gov.ph/ragingpeninsula/btpark.html
The Bataan Technology Park, a 365 hectare of land along the rolling hills of the Morong Special Economic Zone in Bataan overlooking the
South China Sea , is the former site of the United Nations Philippine Refugee Processing Center. It is now conceived to become the growth
nucleus for knowledge-based industries that will propel the Philippines towards being the next hub for high technology innovation and
applications development, especially in information technology (IT) and its related industries, in the Asia-Pacific Rim.
Aside from the proposed Economic Zone to be developed on this area, there are existing Dormitories and accommodation facilities which are
also ideal for conferences and team buildings. The shrines and monuments left here served as witness of man’s courage to endure the triumph
even in very vile conditions.
HISTORICAL LEGACY AND PLACES OF INTEREST AT BTPI
FREEDOM PLAZA
The landscaped park at the heart of what used to be the administration complex of the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, F reedom Plaza
was one of the first sights that greeted the thousands of refugees from Indochina who were fortunate enough to arrive in Bataan. For those
Indochinese refugees and asylum-seekers, this airy and open plaza became a symbol of safety, freedom and a new beginning. Freedom Plaza
now adorns the administration center of the Bataan Technology Park.

INDOCHINESE MAP
Showing the map of Indochina, this stone marker was put by the refugees who stayed at the Philippine Refuge Processing Center to remind
them of their home countries. From 1980 to 1994, the PRPC hosted more than 350,000 refugees from the Indochinese peninsula - Vietnamese,
Laotians and Khmers from Cambodia. Over its 14-year existence, the Center was home to some 18,000 refugees and asylum seekers at any
one time.
BUDDHIST TEMPLE I
This huge image of the Buddha is located in one of two Buddhist temples built in the Philippine Refugee Processing Center. It was hand-made
by the refugees who lived in the Center. Those refugees came from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, countries where Buddhism was – and still is
– the main religion. In Vietnam today, for instance, over 70% of the population are either Buddhist or strongly influenced by Buddhist
practices.
BUDDHIST TEMPLE II
These two icons mark another Buddhist temple, an open-air haven which the Vietnamese refugees who stayed at the Philippine Refugee
Processing Center built on a quiet spot overlooking a river. Guarded over by these imposing Buddhist images – a meditating Buddha and a
female Bodhisattva or saint – this temple must have been a favorite “meditation corner” for many of the Vietnamese, Lao and Khmer refuges
who used to call this area of Bataan home.
THAT LUANG
Refugees who came from Laos, now known as the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, built this monument, one of the most ornate landmarks
in the Philippine Refugee Processing Center. It was built in honor of Luang Prabang, the ancient capital city of the Lan Xan kingdom. According
to Laotian legend, Luang Prabang was first named Muang Swa after King Khun Xua who ruled Laos in the eight century. It was la ter renamed
Xieng Dong and Xieng Thong. During the reign of King Pa Ngum, from 1354 to 1372, the two cities of Xieng Dong and Xieng Thong were
united and given the new name Luang Prabang after thr gold image of Buddha, the Phrabang.
REFUGEE BOAT
Many of the refugees who came to the Philippine Refugee Processing Center arrived in the Philippine aboard rickety, wooden boats. Desperate
to escape political, social and economic persecution in their home countries, these refugees dared to cross dangerous seas aboard these flimsy
vessels – often with nothing more than the shirts on their backs – in search for a better life and a brighter future for themselves and their
children.
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
An image of the Blessed Mother is one of the surprises that await visitors to what was once the Philippine Refugee Processing Center. Although
the PRPC, over its 14 – year existence, hosted over 350,000 Indochinese refugees, most of whom were Buddhist, it was also home to a few
Roman Catholic Vietnamese refugees. These Vietnamese Catholics, who represented the minority, both at the Center and in their home
country, built this monument to thank the Blessed Mother for their safe arrival in the country.
KHMER MONUMENT
Built by the Khmer refugees from Cambodia, this monument is reminiscent of the ancient temples that dot the Cambodian landsca pe,
particularly in Angkor. Thse temples, built from 879 to 1191 AD, when the Khmer civilization was at the height of its development, represent
some of mankind’s most astonishing and enduring architectural achievements.
BAYON MONUMENT
Built by Khmer refugees, this monument is a replica of the Bayon, the state temple built by King Jayavarman VII at the Angkor Thom. Copying
the temples at the Bayon, this monument shows four faces in the four cardinal points of the compass.
VIETNAMESE MONUMENT
Built by the Vietnamese refugees who came to the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, this monument salutes the best of Viet nam’s culture.
It showcases the influence of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, the three great religions that helped shape Vietnames culture. At the same
time, it symbolizes the strong sense of community that has allowed the Vietnamese to resist being assimilated by foreign cult ures.
ANGKOR WAT
rected by the Khmer refugees who came to the Philippine Refugee Processing Center, this monument was inspired by the magnificent temples
of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It is a humble representation of the more than 100 temples that still stand at this ancient Cambodian city, the
surviving remains of a grand metropolis from where god-like kings once ruled Southeast Asia.
aan Philippine Refugee

A typical day at PRPC. A pictorial memory by Gaylord Barr
http://bataan-prpc.blogspot.com/
" PRPC, located in the mountains of Bataan, was about a 3-hour bus ride from Manila. The PRPC opened in 1980 and
closed around 1995. I worked there from 1984 to 1988. More than 400,000 Indochinese refugees (Vietnamese, Khmer,
Lao, ethnic Chinese, and some other minority groups) passed through its gates. Almost all of them had already been
accepted for resettlement in the U.S., and almost all of them had already spent months and years in first asylum camps in
the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. During their stay in the PRPC, the refugees underwent
final processing, health screenings, and studied English and U.S. culture. Most of the photos in this album were taken on
one day...the day before I left. They're not the most beautiful, and they don't include ceremonies or friends' faces. I took
the photos to remember the look of the camp. What the photos can't express is what the PRPC felt like...the amazing mix
of languages, backgrounds, and cultures, the old hatreds and loyalties, the night sounds from the forest, the steam rising
from the earth after a sudden downpour, the sound of students repeating an English phrase, the sound of prayers from a
temple at sunset..."
~Gaylord Barr~

Philippine refugee processing center

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