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Forced Migration, Oceanic Humanitarianism, and the Paradox of Danger and Saviour of a Vietnamese Refugee Boat Journey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2021

Joy Damousi ,
Filippo Nelli ,
Anh Nguyen Austen ,
Alessandro Toffoli  and
Mary Tomsic Open the ORCID record for Mary Tomsic [Opens in a new window]
Joy Damousi*
Affiliation:
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
Filippo Nelli*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia
Anh Nguyen Austen*
Affiliation:
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
Alessandro Toffoli*
Affiliation:
Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Mary Tomsic*
Affiliation:
Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia
*
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

The ocean is a central site of escape, danger, and rescue for refugees. It is also a place where oceanic humanitarianism is enacted. In histories of refugee migration, the combination of the ocean, weather, and climate in determining the fate of refugees has not been adequately examined. This article provides a critical analysis of a Vietnamese refugee boat journey in 1982, to demonstrate the paradoxical nature of the ocean as both a site of danger and saviour. Conventional historical methodologies alone cannot capture the complex role of the ocean and the weather in determining boat refugee journeys and rescues. Interdisciplinary research between historians and ocean engineers provides new evidence and understanding of how the ocean and weather influences the outcomes of refugees seeking asylum by boat. Numerical model predictions of sea state and ship motion – which enables the vessel's journey in past environmental conditions to be understood – integrated within historical analysis contributes to a fuller and more complex understanding of the nexus between environmental conditions and forced migration journeys. Ocean engineering produces a scientific narrative that historians can use, alongside oral histories and other sources, to theorize the ocean as an active agent.

Type
Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , March 2022 , pp. 505 - 526
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.

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References

1 Anh Nguyen Austen, Notes while interviewing the 101 Boat refugees, Oct. 2019, in possession of the author.

2 Footage of rescue by Médecins du Monde, https://youtu.be/g0ZjgoXOlW8, 9 July 2012.

3 Lynda Mannik, ‘Introduction’, in Lynda Mannik, ed., Migration by boat: discourses of trauma, exclusion and survival (New York, NY, 2016), pp. 1–24, at pp. 1–2.

4 Gatrell, Peter, ‘Refugees – what's wrong with history?’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 30 (2017), pp. 170–89Google Scholar, at p. 174.

5 For an incisive and percipient discussion of oceanic history, see Bashford, Alison, ‘Terraqueous histories’, Historical Journal, 60 (2017), pp. 253–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Recent publications include Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves across the south: a new history of revolution and empire (London, 2020); David Armitage, Alison Bashford, and Sujit Sivasundaram, eds., Oceanic histories (Cambridge, 2018); John R. Gillis, The human shore: seacoasts in history (Chicago, IL, 2012); Burton, Antoinette, Kale, Madhavi, Hofmeyr, Isabel, Anderson, Clare, Lee, Christopher J., and Green, Nile, ‘Sea tracks and trails: Indian Ocean worlds as method’, History Compass, 11 (2013), pp. 497–502CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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7 See Armitage, Bashford, and Sivasundaram, ‘Introduction: writing world oceanic histories’, in Armitage, Bashford, and Sivasundaram, eds., Oceanic histories, pp. 1–27.

8 See, for example, Brian Fagan, The little Ice Age: how climate made history, 1300–1850 (New York, NY, 2000).

9 Gatrell, ‘Refugees – what's wrong with history?’, p. 172.

10 Ibid., p. 175.

11 Ibid.

12 Outside the discipline of history scholarship on humanitarian action with refugees on the ocean includes Cusumano, Eugenio, ‘The sea as humanitarian space: non-governmental search and rescue dilemmas on the central Mediterranean migratory route’, Mediterranean Politics, 13 (2018), pp. 387–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cusumano, Eugenio, ‘Migrant rescue as organized hypocrisy: EU maritime missions offshore Libya between humanitarianism and border control’, Cooperation and Conflict, 54 (2019), pp. 3–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schwiertz, Helge and Schwenken, Helen, ‘Mobilizing for safe passages and escape aid: challenging the “asylum paradox” between active and activist citizenship, humanitarianism and solidarity’, Citizenship Studies, 24 (2020), pp. 493–511CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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14 An exception through a focus on Vietnamese in refugee camps in different geographical locations is Jana K. Lipman's historical exploration of the political actions by Vietnamese in these camps alongside the diasporic networks connected to camps, and these actors and actions as connected to local, regional, and broader geopolitical forces, Jana K. Lipman, In camps: Vietnamese refugees, asylum seekers, and repatriates (Oakland, CA, 2020).

15 Nancy Viviani, The long journey: Vietnamese migration and settlement in Australia (Melbourne, 1984), 38.

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19 Vinh Nguyen, ‘Nu'ó'c/water: oceanic spatiality and the Vietnamese diaspora’, in Mannik, ed., Migration by Boat, pp. 65–78.

20 Ibid., p. 66.

21 Pugh, ‘Drowning not waving’, p. 51.

22 Viviani, The long journey, p. 20.

23 Ibid., 28.

24 Ibid., 29.

25 Judith Kumin, ‘Orderly departure from Vietnam: Cold War anomaly or humanitarian innovation?’, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 27 (2008), pp. 104–17, at pp. 107–8.

26 Ibid., pp. 111–12; Mark Cutts, ‘Flight from Indochina’, in UNHCR, The state of the world's refugees 2000: fifty years of humanitarian action (Oxford, 2000), pp. 79–103, at pp. 86, 98.

27 Kumin, ‘Orderly departure from Vietnam’, p. 117.

28 Viviani, The long journey, p. 17.

29 Cutts, ‘Flight from Indochina’, p. 98.

30 Ibid.

31 Viviani, The long journey, pp. 43–4.

32 Ibid.

33 Kumin, ‘Orderly departure from Vietnam’, p. 106.

34 Viviani, The long journey, p. 95; Nghia M. Vo, The Vietnamese boat people, 1954 and 1975–1992 (Jefferson, NC, and London, 2006).

35 Martin Purbrick, ‘Pirates of the South China Seas’, Asian Affairs, 49 (2018), pp. 11–26, at p. 14; Stefan Eklöf Amirell, Pirates of empire: colonisation and maritime violence in Southeast Asia (Cambridge, 2019), p. 161; S. Chantavanich and P. Rabe, ‘Thailand and the Indochinese refugees: fifteen years of compromise and uncertainty’, Asian Journal of Social Science, 18 (1990), pp. 60–80, at p. 67.

36 Cutts, ‘Flight from Indochina’, p. 87.

37 J. Kumin, ‘Orderly departure from Vietnam’, p. 108; Rachel Stevens, ‘Political debates on asylum seekers during the Frazer government, 1977–1982’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 58 (2012), pp. 526–41, at pp. 528–9; Viviani, The long journey, pp. 85–9.

38 Irini Papanicolopulu, ‘The duty to rescue at sea, in peacetime and in war: a general overview’, International Review of the Red Cross, 98 (2016), pp. 491–514.

39 Cutts, ‘Flight from Indochina’, p. 87.

40 Ibid.

41 The subsequent programme developed was known as DISERO (Disembarkation Resettlement Offers) scheme. UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), ‘Problems related to the rescue of asylum-seekers in distress at sea’, 26 Aug. 1981, EC/SCP/18, www.unhcr.org/en-au/excom/scip/3ae68ccc8/problems-related-rescue-asylum-seekers-distress-sea.html; Pugh, ‘Drowning not waving’, p. 66.

42 UNHCR, ‘Protection of asylum-seekers at sea protection of asylum-seekers at sea, no. 20 (31) – 1980’, Executive committee of the high commissioner's programme, 16 Oct. 1980, www.unhcr.org/excom/exconc/3ae68c435c/protection-asylum-seekers-sea.html.

43 UN, ‘United Nations convention on the law of the sea of 10 Dec. 1982, Oceans & law of the sea United Nations division for ocean affairs and the law of the sea’, last updated 12 Feb. 2020, www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm.

44 Ibid.

45 ‘The navy, the French doctors & boat people’, Cols bleus Marine Nationale, 18 July 2014, www.colsbleus.fr/articles/2695; Michael Richardson, ‘Singapore delays landing of boat refugees’, Age (Melbourne), 7 July 1982, p. 7.

46 ‘Our history: the beginnings’, About us: Médecins Du Monde, English translation, www.medecinsdumonde.org/en/our-history; Miriam Ticktin, ‘Medical humanitarianism in and beyond France: breaking down or patrolling borders?’, in Alison Bashford, ed., Medicine at the border: disease, globalization and security, 1850 to the present (London, 2007), pp. 116–35, at p. 122.

47 Ticktin, ‘Medical humanitarianism in and beyond France’, p. 122; Taithe, Bertrand, ‘Reinventing (French) universalism: religion, humanitarianism and the “French Doctors”’, Modern & Contemporary France, 12 (2004), pp. 147–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 150; Givoni, Michal, ‘Beyond the humanitarian/political divide: witnessing and the making of humanitarian ethics’, Journal of Human Rights, 10 (2011), pp. 55–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 62; Hoover, Judith D., ‘Making ourselves useful: crossing academic and social boundaries’, American Behavioral Scientist, 45 (2002), pp. 1135–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 1136.

48 Yasmeen Mohiuddin, ‘Bernard Kouchner: radical leftist turned globetrotting diplomat’, International Journal: Canada's Journal of Global Policy Analysis, 63 (2008), pp. 743–9, at p. 746.

49 Footage of rescue; Mohiuddin, ‘Bernard Kouchner’, p. 746; Pierre Blanchet, ‘Boat people: la routine de la detresse’, Le Nouvel Observateur, 17–22 July 1982, p. 56, trans. by Carolyne Lee, 8 Oct. 2020.

50 Patrick Merziger, ‘The “radical humanism” of “Cap Anamur” / “German emergency doctors” in the 1980s: a turning point for the idea, practice and policy of humanitarian aid’, European Review of History: Revue Européenne d'histoire, 23 (2016), pp. 171–92.

51 ‘Rescue ship may end operations’, Canberra Times, 14 Aug. 1982, p. 4, also Blanchet, ‘Boat people’.

52 UNHCR, ‘Problems related to the rescue of asylum-seekers at sea’, EC/SCP/42, 8 July 1985, www.unhcr.org/afr/excom/scip/3ae68cbc20/problems-related-rescue-asylum-seekers-sea.html.

53 Toffoli, Alessandro, Lefevre, Jean Michel, Bitner-Gregersen, Elzbieta M., and Monbaliu, Jaak, ‘Towards the identification of warning criteria: analysis of a ship accident database’, Applied Ocean Research, 27 (2005), pp. 281–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Odd Magnus Faltinsen, Sea loads on ships and offshore structure (Cambridge, 1993).

54 European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, ‘ERA5’, www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5; data will eventually be available from 1950, ‘Introduction’, ERA5: data documentation, https://confluence.ecmwf.int/display/CKB/ERA5%3A+data+documentation.

55 Footage of rescue.

56 The motion of the 101 Boat can be seen in the video footage of rescue between 22 and 40 seconds from the start and between 50 seconds and 2:44 minutes when the boat is heaving up and down as those on board are climbing onto the fishing nets and especially when the then eighty-one-year-old man was lifted onto the rescue boat at 3 minutes, footage of rescue.

57 Computations were carried out using the open source model NEMOH, Aurélien Babarit and Gérard Delhommeau, ‘Theoretical and numerical aspects of the open source BEM solver NEMOH’, 11th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC2015), Nantes, France (2015) https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01198800.

58 Alberello, Alberto, Bennetts, Luke, Heil, Petra, Eayrs, Clare, Vichi, Marcello, MacHutchon, Keith, Onorato, Miguel, and Toffoli, Alessandro, ‘Drift of pancake ice floes in the winter Antarctic marginal ice zone during polar cyclones’, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 125 (2020), p.e2019JC015418Google Scholar.

59 When heave exceeds 30 per cent of the boat's length, the risk of accident is defined as high, Faltinsen, Sea loads on ships.

60 Oral history with Ann Tran, Paris, 12 Oct. 2019.

61 Explored further in Anh Nguyen Austen, Vietnamese refugees in Australia and the global digital diaspora: history of childhood, migration, and belonging on Facebook (forthcoming, 2022).

62 Hoa Nguyen at 101 Boat Refugee Memorial Ceremony, Paris, 13 Oct. 2019.

63 Blanchet, ‘Boat people’.

64 Oral history interview with Ann Tran.

65 Ibid.

66 Blanchet, ‘Boat people’.

67 Oral history with Khanh Nguyen, Paris, 12 Oct. 2019.

68 Oral history interview with Chuong Nguyen, Paris, 12 Oct. 2019.

69 Oral history interview with Ann Tran.

70 Oral history interview with Bac Hoa Gai, Paris, 12 Oct. 2019.

71 Ann Tran at 101 Boat Refugee Memorial Ceremony, Paris, 13 Oct. 2019.

72 Ibid.

73 Oral history interview with Thanh Nguyen, Paris, 12 Oct. 2019.

74 Blanchet, ‘Boat people’.

75 Oral history interview with Bac Hoa Gai.

76 Oral history interview with Thanh Nguyen.

77 Ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid.

80 Ibid.

81 Viviani, The long journey, p. 95.