The family pleaded to leave the country and was granted conditional permission to depart. Unlike his parents. Chi Luu did not want to gamble on the chance that the Vietnamese immigration officials would actually allow the family to emigrate. and opted for passage to Malaysia in a 35foot fishing boat with 120 other refugees. Chi Luu and the other boat people survived the 5day. 6night sea journey to Malaysia. The refugees were waylaid en route to America at the Pulau Bidong refugee camp. Luu endured 5 long months there of miserable living conditions and very little food. with 40.000 other refugees. Luu watched many people die of starvation and sickness before he was finally set free to fly to New York via Los Angeles. The young refugees struggle was far from over when he was reunited with his family in Elmhurst. NY. Luus inability to speak English prevented him from being accepted to the academic program of his choicethe nationally recognized engineering program of the City College of New York.
Keywords matched
emigrate immigration refugee refugees