FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT 9.30 TUESDAY 11th NOVEMBER
Return of the Boat People
When she was only 7 years old Dai Le was a ‘boat person’.
She fled Vietnam with her mother and sister after the fall of Saigon, becoming part of one of the most dramatic refugee crises of the twentieth century – the maritime exodus of more than one million refugees from war ravaged Vietnam.
They sailed on crowded boats to an uncertain future. Along the way
they encountered treacherous seas, attacks from pirates and rejection
from countries where they sought asylum.
Foreign Correspondent Producer Trevor Bormann and Radio National’s Dai Le joined a group of other Australian Vietnamese ‘boat people‘ as they retraced their life changing voyages.
They returned to sites in Malaysia, where some of the most horrific experiences of their escape took place. Several of the travellers had lost family members, some visiting the graves of loved ones for the first time.
“It was an emotional journey for so many of these people” reports Dai.
“Some had never spoken of their grief, not even within their own families”.
Recently Dai Le stood for the NSW state seat of Cabramatta, a community with a large Vietnamese population. She narrowly
missed out on winning a seat in parliament despite achieving an historic
electoral swing.
Dai Le is happy to be interviewed
She can be contacted on 0417 697 392
This documentary tell the story of the boat number MT065. MT065 left My Tho at the end of Nov 1978, arrived at the shore of Kelantan, Malaysia in the late afternoon of 30 Nov 1978. The boat was not allowed to come ashore, it had to anchor about 150 metres away from the beach. A strong storm came up and the boat sank, more than 170 people among 300 exhausted passengers were drowned.
123 bodies were found and buried on 1 Dec 1978 in a mass grave at a location called Cherang Ruku. Three days later, some 46 bodies were found ashore and also were buried in another mass grave at Balai Bachok. The two mass graves were taken care of by local residents for 30 years. In August 2005, a group of overseas Vietnamese visited these 2 graves. The visit was organised by the Archive of Vietnamese Boat People (AVBP).
Among 170 victims of the MT065 were 2 children of Mr Pham Hoang, the navigator of the boat and the body of one of the two Chinese boat owners.
Mr Pham Hoang and his wife, toghether with other 25 people, paid a visit to these 2 mass graves in September this year. The trip is an annual event and this is the fifth trip that was organised by the AVBP.
The ABC TV crew, Ms Le Dai, Trevor Bormann and Simons spent 5 days with the group. The crew worked non-stop until midnight everyday to conduct interview and to film all the graves scattered around in the various cemetery in Kelantan, Terrenganu, and Pulau Bidong.
Return of the Boat People
When she was only 7 years old Dai Le was a ‘boat person’.
She fled Vietnam with her mother and sister after the fall of Saigon, becoming part of one of the most dramatic refugee crises of the twentieth century – the maritime exodus of more than one million refugees from war ravaged Vietnam.
They sailed on crowded boats to an uncertain future. Along the way
they encountered treacherous seas, attacks from pirates and rejection
from countries where they sought asylum.
Foreign Correspondent Producer Trevor Bormann and Radio National’s Dai Le joined a group of other Australian Vietnamese ‘boat people‘ as they retraced their life changing voyages.
They returned to sites in Malaysia, where some of the most horrific experiences of their escape took place. Several of the travellers had lost family members, some visiting the graves of loved ones for the first time.
“It was an emotional journey for so many of these people” reports Dai.
“Some had never spoken of their grief, not even within their own families”.
Recently Dai Le stood for the NSW state seat of Cabramatta, a community with a large Vietnamese population. She narrowly
missed out on winning a seat in parliament despite achieving an historic
electoral swing.
Dai Le is happy to be interviewed
She can be contacted on 0417 697 392
This documentary tell the story of the boat number MT065. MT065 left My Tho at the end of Nov 1978, arrived at the shore of Kelantan, Malaysia in the late afternoon of 30 Nov 1978. The boat was not allowed to come ashore, it had to anchor about 150 metres away from the beach. A strong storm came up and the boat sank, more than 170 people among 300 exhausted passengers were drowned.
123 bodies were found and buried on 1 Dec 1978 in a mass grave at a location called Cherang Ruku. Three days later, some 46 bodies were found ashore and also were buried in another mass grave at Balai Bachok. The two mass graves were taken care of by local residents for 30 years. In August 2005, a group of overseas Vietnamese visited these 2 graves. The visit was organised by the Archive of Vietnamese Boat People (AVBP).
Among 170 victims of the MT065 were 2 children of Mr Pham Hoang, the navigator of the boat and the body of one of the two Chinese boat owners.
Mr Pham Hoang and his wife, toghether with other 25 people, paid a visit to these 2 mass graves in September this year. The trip is an annual event and this is the fifth trip that was organised by the AVBP.
The ABC TV crew, Ms Le Dai, Trevor Bormann and Simons spent 5 days with the group. The crew worked non-stop until midnight everyday to conduct interview and to film all the graves scattered around in the various cemetery in Kelantan, Terrenganu, and Pulau Bidong.