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 I will take you on a tour to a refugee
camp which I believe some of you might have heard
of. However what you've heard is not what it was. What you read in the
paper may not be what it actually occurred. Hearing, reading is certainly
not witnessing and experiencing. Many of us take for granted what we have:
freedom, jobs, houses, love...To see how hard it is to have all of these
may make us appreciate it more and empathize with the unfortunate.
Vietnamese
refugees, Who are they? After the fall of US-backed government in 1975, hundreds of
thousands of Vietnamese escaped the country with the fear of being
persecuted by the new communist government or simply to find a better
life. Either reason, for over ten years Vietnamese had
been welcomed by the "free world" and given shelter by asylum countries
like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong... They had been treated
as political refugees. However as time went by, things changed. With the
birth of CPA. Vietnamese was no longer automatically granted the title
"political refugee".
What is CPA?It is the abbreviation for
Comprehensive Plan of Action. CPA was into effect at different time in
different camps in Southeast Asia. It was on 3/18/1989 in Thailand. This is
called the cut-off date. Vietnamese who escaped Vietnam after this
date would be no longer automatically granted political refugee
status. All escapees or boat people had to go through a screening process
to determine their status. If they were not qualified as political
refugees, they would be denied the admission to third country. Their fate
depended on Thai lawyers who hunted for mistakes in the refugees' statement
rather than listened to their situation. They were like the God. who had
total control over the refugees. A person was qualified as a political
refugee not because he himself had been actually persecuted but because he
had successfully persuaded Thai lawyers that he had been
persecuted. Sadly above all, the results of screening depended on the
"mood" of Thai lawyers.
What did CPA accomplish? It succeeded in stopping boat people from leaving their
country. However CPA is more cruel than it sounds. Boat people were scared
of screening officials more than they were scared of the communists back
home. when they escaped their country, they sold their properties to pay
the boat owners; they took the chance of being caught and put in jail;
they risked their life to cross the ocean; and if they failed to prove to
the screening officials that they were persecuted, they were DEAD! To
communist no matter what their motive for escaping the country, they are
always "traitors"; to the "free world" they are "economy burden". Moreover
CPA also corrupted the screening officials. Bribing to get screened in was
not unusual. The fate of refugees was determined by quota: For instance in
Thailand there was 14% people who were screened in; 17% in Hong Kong, 21%
in Philippines...
Besides, it also encouraged refugees to lie
for their life.
 
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