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stated that they left Vietnam with little food, water or fuel in the hope they would be rescued by the US Seventh Fleet. Knowledge of the whereabouts of the Fleet was obtained from overseas radio broadcasts or market place gossip. The container ship ANNA MAERSK was directed to the refugee boat by an aircraft from the Fleet.
5.
Planning by Overseas Chinese shipping syndicates to engage in the refugee trade has stopped following the oratorium and strong police action in Hong Kong and Singapore. The last ship involved was the SEAVIEW, a Taiwanese owned Panamanian ship of 2,150 tons which was forced to sail without refugees from Vietnam, in late June. Money agents in Hong Kong no longer handle escape money on behalf of people in Vietnam.
6.
No refugees have left Northern Vietnam by boat directly for Hong Kong since the moratorium but Chinese officials allege that Vietnam has continued to truck the remainder of her ethnic Chinese population in the north to the land border and expel them in their hundreds every day. China claims to have taken in excess of 250,000 ethnic Chinese plus a number of ethnic Vietnamese and border nationalities. The majority of these have been resettled on Overseas or State farms in different provinces. Some of these farms are barely self-sufficient, and many refugees soon become dissatisfied with conditions. They try to escape by boat to Hong Kong which they know from Vietnamese refugee gossip accepts all refugees for eventual resettlement overseas and permits them to work while they are waiting. The remainder are living on their boats along the Chinese coast and gradually making their way to Hong Kong with the knowledge of the Chinese authorities. Many pay Chinese fishing junks for a tor: to Macau or Hong Kong waters and often distribute their passenger overload onto the towing vessel to avoid sinking. The two areas for departure from China are the port of Bei Hau in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the farm of Ping Sha, Doumen County, Guangdong Province. It is possible that some may come from Fujian Province when the monsoon is more favourable in late October.
Assessment
It is assessed that Vietnam will hold to her moratorium only so long as she considers it to be in her own interest. She will probably link the way the Western nations treat the UN Seven Point programme with any decision to resume the exodus.
2. Ethnic Vietnamese will continue to leave Vietnam clandestinely either for Hong Kong or so as
/to be shipwrecked
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