Homeless and adrift on a friendless sea

By JEREMY REES and AGENCIES

They are images that have gripped the world - people without a home in a crowded boat adrift on a friendless sea.

The Vietnamese boat people, The Voyage of the Damned, Exodus 1947 and now the Tampa, with its load of Afghan asylum seekers, have focused the world's attention on the plight of refugees and the determination of nations to stop them.

Those on board are hoping for new opportunities. Their destination countries fear a teeming mass who may follow.

After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, a massive exodus of two million people tried to escape the communist regime. Many braved typhoon-lashed seas in leaky boats, washing up in Hong Kong, Australia and parts of Southeast Asia.

In some places, they were pushed back out to sea by the authorities.

No one knows how many of the "boat people" perished in small, cramped boats.

In some countries, those who made it ashore were put into refugee camps. In 1989, Vietnam agreed to take back the boat people who had been languishing in camps in Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries.

At the beginning, most headed for southern Thailand, but when Thai pirates began to attack and rob the refugee boats - often raping and killing the occupants - they headed further south towards Malaysia. At the height of the Vietnamese boat people crisis, 21,000 took to boats, in November 1976.

Some made it as far as Australia. This year 4000 boat people have arrived in Australia, a small percentage of the migrant intake of 85,000.

While the waves of refugees in the 1970s were escaping communist regimes in Cambodia and Vietnam, today they are coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Middle East.

In the middle of the 20th century, it was the Nazi genocide against the Jews which provided the most vivid pictures of desperate flight.

In May 1939, the SS St Louis set sail on what became known as the Voyage of the Damned. On board, 937 Jews with visas for Cuba set sail from Germany. When Cuba refused them entry they set sail for Florida, only to be warned away by the US Coastguard.

For 40 days the St Louis sought refuge at any port which would have it. Only 29 passengers were allowed to land at Havana. Some 214 got off in Belgium, 224 in France, 181 in the Netherlands and 288 in Britain.

Another Jewish refugee ship, the Exodus, became the symbol for the exodus of Jews out of post-war Europe after the collapse of Nazi Germany.

Britain, after deciding to send ships back to the ports they came from, refused entry to the "Exodus 1947", which had been bought to bring Jews to Palestine.

When the 4500 people on board refused to turn back, the British boarded the ship and attacked. Three Jews were killed and the Exodus was forced back to Europe. Most returned to British camps in Germany and later went by land to Palestine.