RESTRICTED
REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM
A REPORT BASED ON INFORMATED GATHERED IN HONG KONG
Events of 1978
From Spring 1978 there was an increase in the number of refugees leaving Vietnam. Many ethnic Chinese living in the north crossed into China, 160, 000 by the time the border was officially closed in July but a steady stream continued thereafter by sea as well as by land. Those in the south departed by sea, principally for Malaysia and Thailand. Later in the year increasing numbers from the south (and some from the north) began to reach Hong Kong by boat. From merely acquiescing in departures, the Vietnamese authorities, acting through the Public Security Bureau (PSB) switched to a policy of exerting mounting pressure on ethnic Chinese to leave.
Linked with this, the Bureau established contact with leading members of the overseas Chinese community in Southern Vietnam in order to speed
From October departures and organise them systematically and profitably.
onwards the exodus was considerable, with increasing use of large ocean- going vessels loaded under the control of PSB officials from ports in Southern Vietnam. The organisational details have been best documented in the case of the freighter "Huey Fong", which arrived off Hong Kong in December with 3,300 refugees (see para. 8 below).
Events in North Vietnam in 1979
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2. In January 1979 there were estimated to be between 1.2 and 1. million ethnic Chinese in Vietnam, of whom probably only some 100,000 remained in the north. The treatment of the latter by the authoritics has been harsher and the means of departure and destinations have differed from those in the south.
3.
The Hoa people, as they are known, have in many cases lived in Northern Vietnam for generations. In the last 12 months they have been subjected to what amounts to persecution, which became more severe at the end of 1978 and even worse with the Sino-Vietnamese Border War. They have been harassed by PSB officials, including at times imprisonment without cause and looting of houses. They were told in March 1979 that if they were not out of Vietnam by mid-April they would be moved to work, with minimum assistance and in extremely primitive conditions, in the so called "New Economic Zones" which are barren areas in remote districts; in either case their property would be confiscated. In some instances they
Those in were threatened with transfer to "concentration points". Government employment were dismissed, and factory work and many other occupations were barred to them, as was private business. Chinese schools were closed, Chinese children were forbidden to learn Association a trade and Chinese students excluded from universities. with ethnic Vietnamese was banned, a curfew was imposed, rations were withdrawn if they failed to leave, and mail was censored. They were also threatened with "liquidation" in the event of further hostilities with China.
/cont'd.
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