4
THE BOAT REFUGEES FROM VIETNAM
in areas of the countryside least capable of sustaining life, or escape by raising enough gold or hard currency to buy permission to leave.
Rumours began to filter through that the Vietnam Government was, directly and through semi-official intermediaries, encouraging the operators of ill-reputed shipping syndicates to make quick and enormous profits from potential fugitives by embarking them secretly on old cargo ships, and dumping them on neighbouring countries under the pretext of having rescued them at sea.
These reports soon proved to be true. In September, 1978, the freighter, Southern Cross, loaded with refugees, tried to enter Malaysian waters and later went aground in Indonesia. In November, the Hai Hong entered Port Klang harbour in Malaysia with more than 2,500 refugees on board. In the same month, the Tung An sailed from Vietnam with a similar number of refugees on a voyage which ended in Manila Bay. Lastly, on December 19, the Marine Department of Hong Kong received a radio message from a cargo ship about 740 nautical miles away stating that she had picked up thousands of refugees from boats sinking in international waters off the Vietnam coast. The ship relayed that she intended to bring them to Hong Kong, despite the fact that her first scheduled port of call was Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The ship was the Huey Fong. On December 23, she arrived off Po Toi Island, at the entrance to Hong Kong waters.
The reaction of the Hong Kong Government was twofold. It decided, first, that the refugees - whether they were to go on to Taiwan or not - must be given immediate care and supplies of food and water; and, secondly, that in view of the highly suspect circum- stances of the Huey Fong's voyage, steps must be taken to protect Hong Kong from being exploited and endangered by the organisers of a lucrative illegal traffic in human cargo. Such a trade, carried out clandestinely and in defiance of all conventions and laws of the sea, was likely to swamp the territory with an influx which could conceivably amount to tens of thousands of refugees every week. The potential consequences of inaction were all too obvious: an encroachment of these dimensions could spark off a bitter protest by Hong Kong citizens.
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The government acted accordingly. Over Christmas and the New Year it called back. from their holidays scores of trained volunteer members of emergency relief organisations, such as the Civil Aid Services. Using them in support of the police, helicopter crews and medical staff, it sent them out to the Huey Fong to put supplies on board and to tend any sick refugees; with the ship reprovisioned, the government repeatedly - but unsuccessfully - urged the captain to continue his voyage to Taiwan. Next, the Legislative Council passed amendments to the Merchant Shipping Ordinance which introduced heavy penalties, in- cluding prison sentences, for the offence of using a cargo ship to bring unauthorised passengers to Hong Kong.
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The need for this legislation was highlighted on January 19, when the Huey Fong entered the harbour without permission and the refugees on board were brought ashore. Caches of gold leaf valued at $6.5 million were found in the engine-room. The captain and 10 other people - including three Hong Kong-based businessmen with Vietnam connections arrested and charged with conspiracy. Six months later, after a long trial, the 11 accused received prison sentences adding up to more than 50 years for their roles in what the judge called ‘a voyage of deceit from beginning to end', motivated by greed for gold. The trial revealed that the refugees had, in fact, been embarked in Vietnamese waters with the connivance and assistance of the local authorities, that secret codes had been used to mask the operation, and that the ship's log-book had been systematically falsified.
The action taken in the case of the Huey Fong undoubtedly deterred plotters of similar schemes from bringing shiploads of Vietnamese refugees to Hong Kong. But it did not stop