The Indochinese Exodus

For half a century (ever since the Japanese invasion of 1942), much of Southeast Asia has been racked by war. In the last 20 years alone, some three million people fled their homes in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This book is their story. It is also the story of the international community's response. Spearheading this was the United Nations agency responsible, UNHCR. It pioneered innovations like the Orderly Departure Programme, anti-piracy and rescue-at-sea efforts, and later on, ambitious reintegration projects for returnees. Today the camps in Southeast Asia are closed. Half a million people have returned home. Over two million have started new lives in the United States, Canada, Australia and France. This compelling book is the history of this modern exodus. It also takes stock and poses important questions. How did the flight of refugees and international response evolve? How do we measure the achievements and the failures of that international effort? What has been the legacy in Asia itself? And what lessons can be drawn for use in other refugee situations around the world?

The fall of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to communist armies in 1975 caused a massive outpouring of refugees from these nations. This work focuses on the refugee crisis and the American aid workers--a colorful crew of malcontents and mavericks drawn from the State Department, military, USAID, CIA, and the Peace Corps--who took on the task of helping those most impacted by the Vietnam War. Experts in Southeast Asia, its languages, cultures and people, they saved hundreds of thousands of lives. They were the very antithesis of the "Ugly American."

Massive refugee migrations in Southeast Asia set off in 1975 by changes of government in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, are a problem of both humanitarian and political concern. The refugees pose potentially disruptive political problems for the asylum countries, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. Only a few countries, the United States, France, Australia, and Canada, have accepted an appreciable number of refugees for resettlement. In an effort to obtain worldwide participation in alleviating the Indochina refugee crisis, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has changed its funding program and has held international conferences aimed at obtaining more resettlement offers. It is imperative that appropriate asylum and additional temporary care facilities be provided and effectively managed. Current law does not clearly express U.S. intentions and commitments to refugee resettlement and has made planning and processing of refugees very difficult. Commitments need to be more formally embodied in law to express the will of Congress and possibly to motivate other nations to share refugee relief. A refugee admission and resettlement policy needs to be established.

This book studies the twentieth century exodus of refugees from VietNam, Kampuchea and Laos. Its objectives are to draw attention to the response of the world towards refugees, and to examine what has been and can be done to alleviate the refugee problem. The book is divided into three parts : the first mostly contains background material, the second describes the exodus from each country, and the third discusses the response of countries of asylum, resettlement countries, and the international community. A large amount of the information has been obtained from interviews conducted by the author with refugees and refugee personnel in South East Asian refugee camps. In addressing the question of what can be done the author stresses that the human rights of every refugee must be held inviolably all governments, and he recommends that: 1) resettlement countries make every effort to accept the full extent of their quotas; 2) all South East Asian countries give asylum to refugees and observe the principle of protection; 3) international assistance be provided to and accepted by countries of asylum; 4) the UNHCR ensure that the principles of asylum and non-refoulement are observed; 5) Vietnamese officials observe the principle of safe and orderly departure and not impede the exodus of people wanting to leave; and, 6) international agreements be revised in order to ensure the refugees' right to asylum and the UN's humanitarian right of access to aid all refugees. Finally, the author suggests that international refugee assistance is badly coordinated and he calls for a world conference on refugees and an International Refugee Year.

The fall of Saigon in April 1975 resulted in the largest and most ambitious refugee resettlement effort in Canada’s history. Running on Empty presents the challenges and successes of this bold refugee resettlement program. It traces the actions of a few dozen men and women who travelled to seventy remote refugee camps, worked long days in humid conditions, subsisted on dried noodles and green tea, and sometimes slept on their worktables while rats scurried around them – all in order to resettle thousands of people displaced by war and oppression. After initially accepting 7,000 refugees from camps in Guam, Hong Kong, and military bases in the US in 1975, Canada passed the 1976 Immigration Act to establish new refugee procedures and introduce private refugee sponsorship. In July of 1979, the federal government under Prime Minister Joe Clark announced that Canada would accept an unprecedented 50,000 refugees – later increased to 60,000 – more than half of whom would be sponsored by ordinary Canadians. Running on Empty presents gripping first-hand accounts of the government officials tasked with selecting refugees from eight different countries, receiving and matching them with sponsors, and helping churches, civic organizations, and groups of neighbours to receive and integrate the newcomers in cities, towns, and rural communities across Canada. Timely and inspiring, Running on Empty offers essential lessons for governments, organizations, and individuals trying to come to grips with refugee crises in the twenty-first century.