On July 2, 1976, Vietnam was reunited under communist rule. For hundreds of thousands of people, this was the final signal to flee – mostly in tiny boats across the sea. The era of the boat people began.
After the communists had won the decades-long Vietnam War, many people in South Vietnam who had worked with the Americans feared for their lives. The US brought a large part of it to safety. But hundreds of thousands from other parts of the population, including many members of the Chinese minority in the country, feared the new rulers so much that they ventured on the daring tour across the South China Sea in the hope of finding a safe haven somewhere. In addition to the dangers of the sea, pirates lurked for the refugees. Tens of thousands of boat people drowned because their nutshells sank or were robbed by the buccaneers and often killed.
The podcast team puts the escape drama in the broad context of the wars in Southeast Asia in these years, sorts out the various sources of conflict and provides the respective backgrounds. At that time, after some hesitation, the international community could no longer ignore the misery. A UN conference on the refugee crisis laid the foundations for comprehensive aid in the summer of 1979 – in addition to financial commitments and the organization of aid, host countries were sought for the boat people. Most of the Vietnamese came to live in the USA, Canada or Australia. Smaller contingents were also accepted in Germany, fished out of the sea, not least by the German ship “Cap Anamur”. It is true that the refugees often integrated themselves very quickly into local society, but here, too, they sometimes met with rejection.
And here is the podcast: