INDO-CHINESE "SMALL BOAT" REFUGEES
Background
Following an international appeal made by the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees Ministers agreed in December 1976 that the
United Kingdom could accept for permanent settlement up to 116 of the so-called "small boat" refugees who had escaped from Indo-China. These
were people who were putting to sea mostly from Vietnam, but to a lesser extent from Cambodia and Laos, in small often unseaworthy craft, with For many their only prospect
few provisions and no navigational aids.
of survival was that they might be rescued by passing ships.
time there were estimated to be about 2500 such refugees most of whom had
been granted temporary refuge in various South East Asian ports pending
permanent resettlement elsewhere.
2. This quota of 116 is now almost exhausted but the number of small boat
refugees awaiting permanent resettlement continues to increase.
The
latest available figures show that although more than 6000 have been
permanently accepted in various Western countries since early 1976 there
are still some 7000 awaiting relocation. This submission concerns only those of the small boat refugees who are rescued at sea by British ships.
Duties of ships' Masters
cas
3 Section 6 of the Maritime Conventions Act 1911 states that the master
of a vessel "shall, so far as he can do so without serious danger to his own vessel, her crew and passengers (if any) render assistance to every
person
who is found at sea in danger of being lost".
In addition, under Section 22 of the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949, the master of a British ship registered in the
United Kingdom "on receiving at sea a signal of distress or information
souce
from any service that a vessel
is in distress, shall
proceed with all speed to the assistance of the persons in distress...... unless he is unable, or, in the special circumstances of the case,
considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to do so". Failure to comply
with either of these provisions renders the master liable to prosecution.
1.
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