story of the three unaccompanied boys waiting for migration
In 1979 more than 73,000 "Boat People" refugees arrived in Hong Kong from Vietnam. Amongst these thousands that made the journey across the South China Sea were three boys - Nguyen Van Tin (13 years old) Tran Van Nghiep (10 years old) Tran Quang Nguyen (8 years old) from Ly'Son a small island off the coast of Vietnam near Quang Ngai.
They arrived in a small junk with nine young men between 16-20 years old. As they did not arrive with any relative, like the thousands of other children who arrive without parents or relative, they were classified "unaccompanied minors" by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Most unaccomp- anied minors when they are interviewed by UNHCR say their parents sent them out of Vietnam - to a better life they usually have the name and address of some relative already resettled, therefore they are processed for re- settlement fairly quickly.
-
During Tin, Nghiep and Nguyen's interview they told their story of how on a very warm night in August 1979, they were asleep on Nghiep's father's small fishing boat; when they woke up they discovered the boat was going out to sea. Five young men were on the boat and they told the boys to keep quiet - they were going to a new country. Later they all transferred to a bigger boat where four other young men were waiting. Their journey took over eight weeks. During their hazardous journey across the South China Sea they ran out of food and water. When they arrived in Hong Kong in October 1979, they were in a very poor nutritional state, very thin and suffering from pellagra a bad skin disease. We later discovered that Tin's younger
Their brother had died during the journey and his body thrown overboard. arrival in Hong Kong posed a problem for UNHCR because according to the children's story they did not have their parents' permission to leave Vietnam nor did they have any relatives outside Vietnam. The UNHCR made several attempts to contact the Vietnamese Government asking if the children could be repatriated to Vietnam - no response was received.
In May 1980 UNHCR requested the Joint Voluntary Agencies for Resettlement of Indo-Chinese Refugees to accept these children for resettlement in USA. JVAR would not accept their case until they were completely satisfied that every effort had been made by UNHCR to get an answer from the Vietnamese Government.
After In the meantime I encouraged the children to write to their parents. a great time lapse we finally received a letter from Nghiep's parents saying that they were glad to know they were safe and wanted them to go to a country where they would be free, given food and education. At the same time JVAR had received a promise of sponsorship for the boys from a family in Minnesota - they had heard the story of how they had been brought out of Vietnam from one of the young men who had stolen the boat and was now living in Minnesota and wanted to do something for the boys. It was now November 1980 and it was obvious by this time more than one year after the boys arrived in Hong Kong that the Vietnamese Government were not going to reply to UNHCR. In December 1980 JVAR presented the boys' case to USA Immigration and Naturalization Service. The boys were interviewed in December 1980 by INS and were turned down on the grounds that they did not meet the criteria of a refugee
they had not left Vietnam because of fear of persecution. An appeal was made on their behalf by the U.S. Consultate General Deputy Refugee Co-ordinator in Hong Kong to the State Department Washington
That