The 40th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon, on 30 April 1975, is fast approaching: a meaningful day both for the people of Vietnam, and for the Vietnamese diaspora around the world.
For the former, the end of a terrible decades-long war which ravaged their country and maimed so many lives. For the latter, a sad anniversary marking forced emigration and exile from a country and culture irreparably lost.
Slowly, the emotional wounds are healing with time. The business-friendly Vietnamese communist government is putting out the welcome mat for overseas Vietnamese to return there on family reunion holidays, or even (if they have capital and/or skills) to live and work. As one Vietnamese entrepreneur who successfully returned from Britain told the Financial Times recently:
The reality is that once the government knows you’re here to do business, they leave you alone.
And yet, it seems, some people still try to flee Vietnam, either as political refugees or perhaps in search of better opportunities.
The Australian Government has found its own egregious way to commemorate the anniversary. Last Friday 17 April, Nick Butterly of the West Australian broke a remarkable story from Canberra: that HMAS Choules (pictured) was currently standing off the Vietnamese coast, in an operation to hand back to Vietnam a group of almost 50 asylum seekers. They were ‘believed to have been intercepted by Customs and Navy vessels earlier in April, north of Australia’.
It was unclear ‘whether HMAS Choules had already handed them over to Vietnamese authorities or whether they were still in the process of being transferred’. The weeklong return voyage of HMAS Choules to Vietnam to return the asylum seekers was estimated to cost at least $1.4 million each way.
I would guess this story was officially leaked to the West Australian, perhaps as a way of putting pressure on Vietnam to accept the returnees. It seems hardly credible that the government would mount a costly $2.8 million voyage without first checking that the people would be accepted by Hanoi.
But that was Scott Morrison’s working style with the 157 Tamils last year, who after being taken all the way back from Australian waters were in the end were not accepted by Sri Lanka or India. So maybe Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has endorsed the same risky crash-through-or-crash rulebook?
Friday’s leaked story was silent on important questions: whether the boat had been intercepted in Australian or international waters; whether there had been any distress call; what had been the fate of the boat; whether the people had sought refugee status; how, if at all, such requests had been assessed; what dialogue there might have been between Canberra and Hanoi on whether Vietnam would accept forcibly refouled people; and what if any guarantees had been sought or received from Hanoi on their post-return treatment by Vietnamese authorities.
I waited for the wave of media interest and commentary. None came. Fairfax political reporter Heath Aston added a little more detail on Friday: HMAS Choules was off the Vietnamese port city Vung Tao, and expected to hand over the people by Saturday. News Limited reported that a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton declined to comment citing ‘operational matters’.The ABC reported that the Defence Minister Kevin Andrews was referring questions to Dutton.
That was on Friday. On Monday, Dutton told the ABC he would ‘release details at an appropriate time’. Also on Monday, Opposition immigration spokesman, Richard Marles weighed in, telling the ABC that the minister’s secrecy represented a new low. He called on Dutton to explain what assessments of claims by asylum seekers had taken place and to guarantee they were undertaken individually. Marles told the ABC: ‘We need to have confidence that this government has not refouled people against the obligations of the UN convention.’
So another set of unanswered questions, reminiscent of the case of the unsuccessful attempted return to Sri Lanka or India of the 157 Tamils last year. Have the people yet been quietly landed in Vietnam, or is there some sort of diplomatic standoff?
Is Vietnam reluctant to give any publicity to accepting refouled asylum seekers, at this delicate time of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon? Or have the Vietnamese actually dug their heels in and refused to take them? If so, is Australia trying to embarrass them with publicity about HMAS Choules waiting offshore? Is money involved?
I am saddened that with Malcolm Fraser hardly cold in his grave, and with the special and heartfelt honour the Vietnamese Australian community paid him at his funeral, the present government has so cruelly and blatantly sought to refoul a group of people to the country they had apparently fled.
Another major red line crossed in the Australian Government’s violations of our country’s treaty obligations under the UN Refugee Conventions. Another cruel insult to Australia’s loyal Vietnamese-origin community (noting that many Vietnamese are in indefinite immigration detention awaiting deportation). Another body blow to Australian multiculturalism.
Where is the outrage? Have we become so used to such border protection system cruelties we no longer have heart to protest or even report them?
Tony Kevin is a former diplomat.
Image: navy.gov.au