Fed: Boat people arrivals turn from trickle to flood
By Max Blenkin01 Jan 2009 12:01 AM
EDS: EMBARGOED TO 0001 (AEDT) JANUARY 1, 2009
CANBERRA, Jan 1 AAP - Less than two years after the first Vietnamese asylum-seeker boat sailed into Darwin's harbour, dire fears of a flood of humanity had been realised.
Cabinet papers for 1978 - released by the National Archives of Australia under the 30-year rule - reveal the coalition government of Malcolm Fraser feared Australia could be overwhelmed, perhaps by the arrival of a vessel carrying 2,000 or more people.
There appeared to be little prospect of stemming the flood.
Then immigration minister Michael MacKellar said there was abundant evidence the exodus was being facilitated by the Vietnamese authorities in a form of social engineering to reduce its ethnic Chinese population.
Neither was the US being exactly helpful. Still smarting from its Vietnam War humiliation, it took the view that anyone departing Vietnam was a refugee and should be treated accordingly.
The US was taking substantial refugee numbers but it would never become a nation of first refuge, MacKellar said.
With Singapore and Indonesia unsympathetic, the country of first refuge for the flotilla was Malaysia, with 14,000 boat people reaching its shores in September and October 1978 and with 26,500 already in camps.
If that continued, Malaysian attitudes could harden, he said.
The prospect, over time, was that Australia could expect to end up with a substantial proportion of boat people and it would be hard-pressed to cope, especially if many arrived on one vessel.
The only option might be to house them all in a holding centre on Australian territory, possibly under United Nations supervision.
"We will not stop the flow of refugees by saying we have no camp. We may not be able to cope with a crisis without a camp," he said in a submission to cabinet in November 1978.
The government's immediate response was to lift the refugee intake by 1,500 to 10,500 for 1978-79, providing $1.7 million for extra resources.
The government also agreed to seek an explanation from Hanoi.
Saigon officially fell to the armies of the communist north on April 30, 1975, and the first boat carrying five emigres reached Darwin almost exactly a year later.
Within a year, that first tentative arrival had become a flood with boats arriving, seemingly, every day as more and more refugees fled the new communist regime for a better life elsewhere.
>From April 1975 to November 1978, Australia had accepted 14,476 Vietnamese and Laotian refugees for resettlement, MacKellar said.
"In general terms, it can be said that refugees are moving into the community fairly quickly, are taking good advantage of English language tuition and are finding jobs," he said.
Australia ultimately ended up accepting 137,000 Vietnamese boat people. The exodus finally eased with market reforms and a more liberal climate in Vietnam.
Many in camps throughout south-east Asia voluntarily returned home. The final 200 refugees in the Philippines were granted asylum in Europe and North America in 2005.
Fraser government minister Fred Chaney described it as the prime minister's finest hour.
Chaney, later an outspoken critic of the way the Howard government handled asylum seekers, said government statements in 1978 were invariably in positive and reassuring terms on Australia's capacity to deal with refugees.
"The government provided what was, I think, its finest hour in providing a clear political and morally-based lead to the Australian people in dealing with what everyone agreed was a humanitarian disaster," he said.
"The behaviour stands in such sharp contrast with the recent past. I would hope that prime minister of the day, now, would know that there are ways of dealing with the Australian people other than by appealing to fear."
