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Radio review: Remembering the rescue of the Vietnamese Boat People

<span style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); color: rgb(84, 89, 93); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 15.2px;">Vietnamese refugees rest as crewmen aboard the USS FOX give them something to drink.Around 800,000 people are believed to have fled Vietnam in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.</span>
Vietnamese refugees rest as crewmen aboard the USS FOX give them something to drink.Around 800,000 people are believed to have fled Vie Vietnamese refugees rest as crewmen aboard the USS FOX give them something to drink.Around 800,000 people are believed to have fled Vietnam in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

The Reunion: The Vietnamese Boat People - BBC Radio 4

IT was October 1978. They were among 346 Vietnamese refugees packed like sardines onto one small sinking rudderless fishing boat tossed about on the south China seas.

This was their story. It was heartwarming; all were rescued and made new lives. But their memories of childhoods lived in the shadow of fear were compelling.

Diep Quan was just nine years old - she remembered hushed conversations, secrets. Her family were experimenting with cooking and drying rice, warm cardigans were knitted... but nothing was said.

James Huynh was just eight. He remembers sheets of gold, diamond, jewellery being sewn into his clothing. Again, nothing was said.

"We are just making it look special for a special occasion," his parents told them.

The refugees - the boat people - left Vietnam in their hundreds of thousands and many drowned or starved to death on the seas. Pirates attacked the men, raped the women, stole the hidden wealth.

But these four refugees were on a small boat spotted by a British cargo ship, the MV Wellpark.

This was their reunion with each other and with the man, Graham MacQueen, who helped rescue them.

He remembered sailing out in a lifeboat and parents throwing babies and small children through the air to safety.

It was a heartening tale of hardship endured and lives rebuilt - not that it was easy. Dao Nguyen lost everything, even her medical certificate, but her family were safe and that was the biggest gift.

You plunge from wealth to poverty, from holding a high ranking job to washing up pots in a restaurant because you don't speak the language and that's all you can do.

But it was the ending that was telling.

Asked about the hundreds of thousands of modern refugees fleeing their homes, they did not all throw their arms open in welcome.

Yes, there was a sense of kinship, but Dr Philip Huynh was measured. He said that you had to remember that refugees cost money and it was important to be selective.

James Huynh disagreed - no limitation, he said - nobody selected them, he pointed out; if and when he could help, he definitely would.