Viet Nam Human Rights
BoatPeople issue: Time to get the rid of the past
24/6/15
Wars ended for a
long time, but till now there are still many problems, one of those is “Boatman”
or “Boatpeople” issue. So, what is Boatpeople? And, why does it become a long-lasting
obstacle for Vietnam?
We can not hide from this, it’s time to review it and together find a comprehensive
solution for it.
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 is also often used generically to refer to all the Vietnamese
(about 2 million) who left their country by any means between 1975 and 1995.
Post-war Vietnam faced
many challenges. Two years after the withdrawal of the last US combat troops, the North Vietnamese tanks and
soldiers rolled into Saigon. Within days, the
South Vietnamese government turned on its heels and fled. After more than a
century of foreign domination and 21 years of war and division, Vietnam was at
last a single, independent nation, free from external control and interference.
Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City,
in honour of the revolutionary leader. The task of leading this new nation generated
excitement among the Communist Party of Vietnam. But with so many problems and
obstacles to overcome, there was also much concern.
The most
significant barrier to this was political opposition. Nguyen Van Thieu’s
government and its American backers may have withdrawn – but they left behind
millions of employees and supporters, including former military personnel,
bureaucrats, business owners and civilians. These loyalists were told by
American propaganda that the communists would slaughter them en masse, a threat
that never eventuated.
But, due to the U.S.
and Western media, 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 destinations
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 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.
So sadly, these
boatpeople and their next generations now keep a prejudice and wrong, unfair
looks about Vietnam’s
present situation. And many individuals who are incited and advocated by
hostile forces has carried out many movements and activities against the Party
and State of Vietnam, undermining our national interests. They abuse this issue
but ignore that in Western nations where they frequently praise like standards
of human rights and democracy have launched many immoral and inhumane strict
measures in dealing with the same issue boatpeople or refugees.
Australian Prime
Minister announced that no more boatpeople will be resettled in Australia as refugees, with all unauthorised
arrivals to be sent to poverty-stricken Papua New Guinea.
The European Union
likes to boast that it is a force for good. But in the past ten days as many as
1,200 boatpeople have drowned in the waters of the Mediterranean.
An unknown number were refugees from Syria,
Eritrea and Somalia fleeing
war or persecution. They perished in part because the EU’s policy on asylum is
a moral and political failure. Europe cannot
put an end to the violence and desperation that leads people to flee, but in
the longer run it should do more for its neighbours. Engagement makes sense in
itself and may eventually help stem the flow of refugees. If the EU works for a
settlement in Libya,
the criminal networks may become less entrenched. If it accepts north African
produce, it may face fewer north African people. If more of the EU offers help
to the 1 million refugees in Lebanon,
fewer will turn up on the streets of Paris and Berlin. Europe likes to think it is a model for how nation states
can work together to make the world a better place. At the moment, the boatpeople
put that idea to shame.
I think it’s time we need to take a tolerant
and neutral look about the issue and find a way to consolidate our national
unification, even people inside or outside the country, no matter what reason
they fled, we should stand together to build our country strong and prosperous./.
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All comments [ 13 ]
Hostile forces and many reactionary elements have used this issue like an excuse to protest against Vietnam, we need a comprehensive measure.
Even U.S. has rejected the European Union's argument it should accept its share of those making their way across the sea.
So ashamed EU and Australia which claim of human rights and democracy.
This is a old issue, in the past for many reasons, many Vietnamese people fled to foreign countries, but now, the Party and State of Vietnam has opened and welcomed overseas Vietnamese to come back and contribute for the country's development.
Throughout Europe, the refugees have faced rejection, it's a humanitarian tragedy, but no human rights organization intervenes,. where are they? Where Amnesty International, Human Right Watch...?
I think the most reason is economic, Lawrence Samuels, don't feel sorry for them.
I think Vietnamese boat people and overseas should come together to overcome the past and look forwards to the future.
Western nations say they are respecting the principal [of the refugee convention] but they are undermining it actually. It’s not ‘Well you are a Hazara from Afghanistan so we can’t take you".
So hilarious but painful!
Vietnamese people, no matter where we are living, we are Vietnamese, we should stay solidarity to develop our country.
in recent years, the Vietnamese government has effectively implemented the policy of national unity, in which more overseas Vietnamese have returned and made positive contribution to the country
I think it is better the Vietnamese people abroad shouldn't think about the past, but look at the present and the future.
it 's so right, should close the past to have an objective perspective on the situation in Vietnam nowadays
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