BOAT PEOPLE RETURNEES BEING DISCRIMINATED AND PERSECUTED

Mr. Thanh Phuong from Radio France International (RFI) interviewing three former boat people about the situation of boat people returnees still being discriminated and persecuted.

Nguyen Huu Huan: I fled to Thailand in early 1990 by having escaped to Cambodia, then to Komponsom port and from there I was boated to Thailand. In short, the fleeing trip was miserably hard due to bombs and mines remained in the war and then pirates and many more. I successfully fled to Thailand after days of hardship and thought that I came to Thailand as a free country; that meant I would be resettled but unexpectedly I came there after the so-called cut-off date, March 14, 1989, from which CPA (Comprehensive Plan of Action) was born to screen the asylum seekers and I was labeled as an economic refugee. Thai government and UNHCR forcibly sent us back in blood and tears. I was forcibly repatriated to Vietnam on September 12, 1996 although we had demonstrated against the forced repatriation.

Thanh Phuong: How did UNHCR help you after having been forcibly repatriated?

Nguyen Huu Huan: When still in camp, they promised many things but after repatriation I received USD$ 240 only from province’s Department of Invalids and Social Affairs. In addition, I didn’t receive anything else even vocational training or loan as promised by UNHCR. To be frank, it was not enough for hospital fees with such amount because at that time I was in the situation of being wounded as a result of seppuku. It wasn’t myself alone but all the other returnees almost were in the same situation like mine. It was just in such situation that we were looked as orphans because the responsibility of  UNHCR and European Community ended. Meanwhile Vietnam government thought that our situation was of UNHCR’s and European Community’s responsibility. That’s why the life of the repatriated at ending stage was very tough and I might say that they are under the bottom of society and handicapped about spirit and material.

Thanh Phuong: Mr. Nguyen Tu Thanh also fled to Thailand through Cambodian border and was forcibly repatriated on February 21, 1997 as a result of having fled the country after the cut-off date, March 14, 1989. So his situation is not different from Mr. Huan’s one that means he was also discriminated in job and daily living.

Nguyen Tu Thanh: According to their promise to me and a lot of things I’ve known from camps but when I came back to VN, I received VND 2.828.000 only and just for one time. Aside from that amount, I received no more money as well as other supports. I was almost discriminated entirely after repatriation. I had to take care of myself, I had to find a job and faced great difficulty. I had to write clearly in my resume “what I did in that time, where my residence was and why I repatriated”. I couldn’t go to work for the State-run companies so I had to be self-employed which means I work as an English tutor.

Thanh Phuong: Apart from the discrimination in job, have you faced any other difficulties in the daily living?

Nguyen Tu Thanh: Oh yes, sometimes security policemen asked me what I have been doing and where I was living. I gave them the true facts.

Thanh Phuong: Yes, but in the country are there any groups or organizations which campaign for the help and support to the repatriated like you?

Nguyen Tu Thanh: No Sir, no one, one friend of mine and I made a trip to the remote areas of the West near the Cambodian border to look for the poor and miserable camp-mates to see how miserably they live. There I witnessed with my own eyes they don’t even have rice for meals and money for hospital fees. There was a girl who had been badly sick without money for treatment and died as a result of severe pain. Thanks to the trip we witnessed a lot, and then we wrote this and that article to call for help. If we didn’t do so, no one knew us. Much later we established by ourselves a small private group to support the people who have the same circumstances like ours.

Thanh Phuong: With respect to Mr. Huan, is the discrimination against the forcibly repatriated boat people, partly, from the government’s suspicion towards them?

Nguyen Huu Huan: We have been discriminated because most of boatpeople when fleeing to the asylum camps have a new vision and thinking in a free country. Therefore, after having returned they have different vision and thinking and due to such difference they have been discriminated and restricted to some rights such as: freedom of speech, freedom of meeting etc…Vietnamese government even doesn’t want us to get together and they have tried all means to restrict us. Furthermore, our cell phone have been bugged and we have been restricted to movements and much more. Vietnamese public security is willing to summon us at any time without showing any reasonable reason.

Thanh Phuong: Do they pressurize or influence on your job then?

Nguyen Huu Huan: Yes Sir, the matter of pressure is usually put on by them. In fact, to the forcibly repatriated boatpeople they always live in the constantly worried state, because they have been discriminated as the second-class citizens. In such a case, we determined to establish a foundation to aid one another. Neither Vietnamese government nor UNHCR and international community have any program to help us so we get together with the spirit of healthy leaves protect and help torn leaves. Those who have high social position or are resettled overseas and have condition will contribute financial or spiritual help. However, we have been constantly harassed and threatened since we have done it from the beginning of this year to now.

Thanh Phuong: Does it mean the control has become harsher since the beginning of this year to now?

Nguyen Huu Huan: That’s right. Up to now from early in the year the control has become stricter affecting not only the participants like us but also our families, children and wives as well as our neighbors.

Thanh Phuong: What are the forms which they have used to bring about influence to close relatives in your family and neighbors?

Nguyen Huu Huan: They have distorted and then used all tricks, generally speaking, a lot of tricks. It’s difficult to total them up. There are legal and illegal tricks. I don’t think that is going to stop but has tendency to increase more.

Thanh Phuong: One of the founders of Bach Dang Giang Foundation (BDGF) and has been jailed due to having established this foundation, Mr. Pham Ba Hai, let us know, they have tried to maintain their operation although having been suppressed.

Pham Ba Hai: All the forcibly repatriated boatpeople or even the voluntarily ones have felt difficult in the re-integration. They have been infringed upon and discriminated. And if someone expresses his opinion, that one will be discriminated, suppressed or maltreated. At present there has been any official statistics but in our studies and findings we have recorded such many cases. They have faced difficulties in daily life and I, myself, have done, too. After being released, I realize I need continuing to raise my voice for the boatpeople returnees. Because the CPA’s screening policy of UNHCR was an unfair one; and the second, ROVR (Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees) also had many shortcomings, many people were unable to get through unfairly, they have been eligible for a US resettlement though. Therefore, it must have the activities to help such people. Because it’s clear that we can’t ignore them and the policies of EC (European Community) to help them in Vietnam were not enough. It was just a initial aid to help these people but it couldn’t bring them to be re-integrated in daily life indeed. So in 2005, when having been studying to prepare for my doctorate in India, I and some of other boatpeople returnees having the same sense of purpose in Vietnam carried out the establishment of BDGF to support the boatpeople returnees. Besides, BDGF has also the activities about human rights and democracy because we cannot conduct the humanitarian activities eternally but must influence in social changes and laws in order that those laws have to respect for the rights of the people, especially the rights of the community of boatpeople returnees. BDGF was brought to the trial and I was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment for having established BDGF. BDGF and I, myself, committed no offence, we only executed basically the rights of people, we only reclaimed those rights, we were against no one or advocated overthrowing government. After 5 years of imprisonment, I have continued mobilizing the aid and raising my voice for the community of boatpeople and continued being discriminated and suppressed. Recently, several collaborators were summoned and interrogated because they want to find the proofs to arrest me again. I was summoned for their interrogations continuously and even today, June 20, 2012 I was just interrogated by the public security of the city. I have been summoned for their interrogation several tens of times within 7, 8 months. This is my case only; there are many more cases of being continuously harassed. I have recorded those who were summoned and how the public securities harassed them. This is a violation of human rights towards the community of boatpeople returnees blatantly and systematically, Sir.

Thanh Phuong: So setting aside the issues of campaigning for human rights and democracy, for instance, you only act in the status of a voluntary aid organization to help the people with the same situation, will the public securities leave you alone to do so?

Pham Ba Hai: At present what I have done are the pure humanitarian activities and the public security is unable to find out any proofs that I am campaigning for the issues of human rights and democracy. I told them that this is the class of miserable people, most of them don’t have house to live in and their children are unable to go to school so they must be helped. State’s policy doesn’t bring about the issue of how they should be helped but they are set aside or ignored. So I must help them, just the purely ethical activities, but policemen have forbidden, prevented and threatened the boatpeople returnees not to receive aids or contact Pham Ba Hai. They forbid all. To myself, they told me in their interrogation that they officially forbid me to manage such humanitarian activities and they said that those activities were violating the laws. So what law have those activities violated? They can’t not show what violation but anyone can understand that they have a law which is above all the other laws and even above the constitution, it’s the law of national security. They said that the matter of we get together purely to call for help of one another can create the risk towards national security so it is strictly forbidden. Therefore, where are the rights of human being? Have we done anything that violated national security? It is clear that this is a guideline, a policy of differentiated and discriminatory treatment and having risk of suppressing of mass of boatpeople returnees.

Thanh Phuong: In your opinion, do the differentiation and suppression themselves have the cause of the issue of thinking because they are afraid that the ones whose ideas are acquired overseas, after coming back and are assembled, can become an organization that bring harm to the regime?

Pham Ba Hai: Of course, all the boatpeople before fleeing the country were the victims of the society, it means that they were the victims of the regime. However, it was not strong enough so UNHCR screened them out, not allowed them to be resettled and forced them to return. After repatriation, it must be said that their situation, if they had divergence in ideas towards government or implicit antagonism, have to be higher than before fleeing the country. As a result, when they repatriated, they have become subjects of being controlled by the public security from different levels, all of their movements can become objects of prevention, victimization and suppression. I told the public security that they had the right to infer such conclusion but preventing us from getting together, supporting one another, it means they have violated the basic human rights and the rights of pursuing happiness and life of human being.

Thanh Phuong: So in the future if this situation keeps continuously happening like this, can BDGF continue or cancel its activities?

Pham Ba Hai: Sir, of course BDGF now doesn’t have any legal status to government and maybe never acquire the legal status in the public security’s mechanism with the nature of differentiation and discrimination like this. What BDGF has done is necessary and natural. Therefore, the laws or social environment have to acknowledge that this is natural and they neef to legalize it. Because if the law doesn’t acknowledge, rejecting it out of the frame of law or forbidding it, we are going to come together and accept all the suppression due to the needs and rights of life of human being.

Thanh Phuong: We would like to thank Mr. Nguyen Huu Huan, Mr. Nguyen Tu Thanh and Mr. Pham Ba Hai from Bach Dang Giang Foundation for joining our today program, taking about the situation of the Vietnamese forcibly repatriated boatpeople.

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