Dear friends, this is a much more accurate account of the agreement between the US and Vietnam on the resumption of the refugee program for former US allies signed on November 15 than the earlier post by Reuters from Hanoi.

Thank you, Dr. Nguyen D. Thang and Machsong, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.

--- info@machsong.org wrote:

> To: jlibby@alum.calberkeley.org
> Subject: [Life Stream] Issue 2
> From: info@machsong.org
> Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:04:26 -0500
>

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Boat People SOS

  RE: US resumes refugee program for former allies in
Vietnam   
 For Immediate Press Release
November 17, 2005
 On November 15 the United States and Vietnam officially announced the resumption of refugee programs for former US allies under the newly established Humanitarian Resettlement (HR) program.
“We welcome this decision as it will bring justice to thousands of former re-education survivors and former US employees who had been excluded from US refugee programs for reasons beyond their control,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of Boat People SOS.

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Boat People SOS

Press Releases RE: US resumes refugee program for former allies in Vietnam

For Immediate Press Release
November 17, 2005

On November 15 the United States and Vietnam officially announced the resumption of refugee programs for former US allies under the newly established Humanitarian Resettlement (HR) program.
“We welcome this decision as it will bring justice to thousands of former re-education survivors and former US employees who had been excluded from US refugee programs for reasons beyond their control,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of Boat People SOS.

We would like to express our special gratitude to Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ), who since 1996 has tirelessly supported our effort to give thousands former U.S. allies a fair chance to be considered for refugee resettlement. We also would like to thank Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for the Lautenberg Amendment, which has facilitated the resettlement to the United States of 200,000 refugees from Vietnam and will apply to the new HR program.

In 1994 the U.S. government announced the September 30 registration deadline for refugee programs that resettle former “re-education” camp detainees and former US government employees, with little advance notice. Many former US allies, otherwise eligible for the programs, did not hear about the deadline until after the deadline had been over. There were also numerous people who were aware of the deadline but did not have sufficient time to gather the required documents or large sums of money to pay for access to the program.

Starting in 1996, Boat People SOS has documented a growing number of such cases for presentation to U.S. members of Congress and to the Department of State. Boat People SOS has since advocated for the extension of the 1994 registration deadline.


According to our estimate, thousands of former U.S. allies would benefit from the HR program.

For information, contact Ha Hoa Dang at (703) 538-2190 or hahoa.dang@bpsos.org.

Posted on Thursday, November 17 @ 13:00:49 EST by tuyethoang


A photo of Dr. Thang is included in the New Photos section of this blog, taken by Jean Libby in Falls Church on October 13, 2005.