Vietnam: A group of refugee 'boat people' escaping from communist rule somewhere in the South China Sea, 1984

Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made. The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from Communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War.

Many Vietnamese boat people - though not all - came from the south, the former Republic of Vietnam; also, many were Hoa or ethnic Chinese.

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