大象传媒

Sue McGregor reunites four Vietnamese refugees and one of the men who rescued them from their sinking fishing boat in 1978.

On the evening of 1st October 1978, a British cargo ship, MV Wellpark, spotted a distress flare 120 miles off-land in the South China Sea. When the crew went to investigate, they found 346 Vietnamese refugees crowded onto a sinking, rudderless fishing vessel. In a daring rescue that lasted many hours in very rough seas, every single passenger was saved and eventually given refuge in Britain.

Around 800,000 people are believed to have fled Vietnam by boat in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. They were escaping a repressive regime under the new Communist Government, but many didn't survive the journey.

Some were refused permission to land by neighbouring countries who couldn't cope with the exodus, others were attacked by pirates or sank in vessels unfit for the high seas. In 1979 the United Nations declared the plight of the Vietnamese Boat People "a grave crisis" and urged the international community to take the refugees in.

Sue MacGregor is joined by the Wellpark's Training Officer, Graham MacQueen and four of the refugees he helped rescue - Dr Philip Huynh, Diep Quan, Dao Nguyen and James Huynh.

Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.