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Topic spans: 1975 - 1980
Boat People: A Refugee Crisis
They were prepared to risk everything. In the years following the Vietnam War, over one million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Those Vietnamese who took to the ocean in tiny overcrowded ships were dubbed the "boat people." The survivors sometimes languished for years in refugee camps. The luckier ones were taken in by countries like Canada.
10 television clips
11 radio clips
Re-education camps...or death camps?
Broadcast Date: July 1, 1979
The new Vietnamese government decides to "re-educate" thousands of former American allies, government workers, intellectuals and merchants by transforming them into agricultural workers. They are forced from the cities to Vietnam's "new economic zones" — isolated areas of the country which the government hopes to make fruitful.Once there, they're treated as slave labour. As human rights leaders around the world hear about the atrocities, they begin to protest. Human Rights Committee president Joan Baez describes the camps to CBC Radio.
Vietnamese of Chinese origin are the worst off. Many merchants, most of whom are Chinese, are sent to camps. One and a half million are relocated to new economic zones. In 1978, Vietnam begins expelling 745,000 ethnic Chinese from the country on overcrowded boats. They are the bulk of the large second wave of refugees that begins leaving Vietnam in late 1978: they are the 'boat people,' and they become an international crisis.
Re-education camps...or death camps?
• The Communist government took over Chinese businesses, fired Chinese workers, confiscated their ration cards and denied Chinese children schooling.• Steadily worsening relations between Vietnam and China were one cause of the government's treatment of its Chinese citizens. In 1979, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, attacking the Chinese-backed Pol Pot regime. In retaliation, China began military action along Vietnam's northern border.
• Not only were Chinese forced out of Vietnam on dangerously overcrowded vessels, they had to pay to leave; roughly $3000 per adult.
• The concept of re-education was borrowed from the Chinese communists. Its purpose was to convince people to accept and conform to the new communist society.
• The re-education camps were not officially considered prisons, but rather places where individuals could be rehabilitated into society through education and socially-constructive labour.
• A camp inmate's day was spent doing hard, often dangerous, labour. Evenings consisted of political classes and forced confessions of anti-communist activities.
• There were two types of labour camps: one required a three-year stay and the second, five years. But many individuals were sentenced to consecutive terms.
• In 1987, at least 15,000 people remained in Vietnamese labour camps. Camp conditions continued to be poor, with little food, no medicine and a high death rate.
Re-education camps...or death camps?
Medium: Radio
Program: Sunday Morning
Broadcast Date: July 1, 1979
Guest(s): Joan Baez
Host: Bronwyn Drainie
Reporter: Jay Boldizar
Duration: 4:57
Last updated:
March 31, 2008
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21 clips in this topic . page
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Re-education camps...or death camps? .
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: March 31, 2008.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]