Since 1975. more than half a million people have fled Vietnam by boat. The actual total number can never be known with certainty because so many have perished without trace. Despite the news medias flagging interest. an average of 2.700 of these refugees still are landing on Southeast Asian shores each month. The issue of what the free worlds responsibility Is to these people once they have reached asylum is an important one. but It pales in the light of the extreme urgency surrounding the issue of what is happening to them on the seas. The irrefutable stories of shootings. clubbings. knifings. drownings. abductions. and rapes by lawless pirates are compounded in their horror when the ages. sexes. and helplessness of the victims are considered.
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refugees