Boat People

The Vietnam War

South Vietnamese in the unified Vietnam feared government reprisals for their actions in the war. And the Communist rule in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was repressive because Saigon was the center of Americanization. An estimated 65,000 southerners were executed and a million more were sent to reeducation camps and prisons, where 165,000 died. In desperation, southerners chose the illegal act of leaving their country, and the only transportation option was the fishing boat common to Vietnamese coastal waters. Vietnamese seeking to leave often bribed officials and then departed secretly at night in a boat that could have as many as 400 passengers or on smaller homemade rafts or fishing boats.

Families were routinely separated because of the cost, with only some members leaving at a time. Middle-class Saigonites with forged papers traveled to Danang, stayed in a safe house, and then boarded a fishing vessel for international waters. Because it took several false starts before a successful escape, refugees depleted their resources.

As many as 1.5 million fled on coastal vessels. These craft were not designed for open water, and refugees in panic overcrowded them, so the sea voyage was extremely perilous. Estimated deaths range from 50,000 to 200,000, primarily due to drowning, but refugees also faced attacks by pirates, murder, slavery, and prostitution.

Ethnic Chinese

There were also ethnic Chinese, known as Hoa, who left Vietnam for Hong Kong in fear of Communist retribution. Hundreds of thousands of Hoa left Vietnam after 1975. The Chinese ruled Vietnam for a millennium, and in the Christian French era the Chinese Vietnamese came to dominate commerce and industry and immigration increased. Ethnic Vietnamese regarded the Chinese as alien and discouraged assimilation; the Chinese tended to retain Chinese citizenship.

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