Canada welcomes Vietnamese refugees lost in limbo: Asian Pacific Post Wed, March 12 2008 The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration announced last week the arrival of the first of a number of Vietnamese who have been living in the Philippines without status since the 1970s. http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/c1ee8c4418a404dc0118a56d107f011f Refugees in Vancouver: Asian Pacific Post Last of the Boat People Thu, March 20 2008 By Lucy-Claire Saunders It’s taken over two decades, but the first wave of the last remaining Vietnamese boat people set foot last week on Canadian soil — their new and final home. http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/c1ee8c4418c3a89d0118cd71520400e6 Toronto welcomes 65 forgotten boat people Mar 22, 2008 04:30 AM Nicholas Keung Immigration/Diversity Reporter The first of 65 Vietnamese "boat people" who languished for years in refugee camps after the West slammed the door, landed in Toronto yesterday, 18 years late for the start of a new life of freedom. Thai Van Nguyen is just one of 2,200 lost refugees, all uprooted by a war that ended more than a quarter of a century ago. They were left stranded after the United Nations declared in 1990 they were no longer in need of protection. The declaration led the West to slam its doors, leaving people like Nguyen out of luck. But Nguyen's luck changed yesterday when he landed at Pearson, joining a welcoming community of 150,000 Vietnamese-Canadians who settled here long ago. http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/349687 Vietnamese families given 'chance to rebuild their lives' in Ottawa 'Stateless' people spent decades in Philippines Jessey Bird, Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, April 17, 2008 The first of several Vietnamese families moving to Ottawa arrived late last night, after nearly two decades of living in limbo in the Philippines. Nhan Thanh Nguyen, 55, and his wife, Hue Thi Le, 46, descended the escalator right on time, where they were greeted by a group of anxious and excited members of Ottawa's Vietnamese community. "This is a chance to rebuild their lives," said Can D. Le, national co-ordinator of the Vietnamese Canadian Federation's project Freedom at Last. Canada recently granted stateless Vietnamese people living in the Philippines permanent entry on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled, mainly by boat, with many arriving in the Philippines. Though a number were able to settle in other countries, those who remained in the Philippines were considered stateless. Freedom at Last has raised more than $500,000 to support families immigrating to Canada as well as the United States and Australia. The Forgotten Ones by Brian Doan, a photographic history published by VAALA in 2004, followed by The Story of Palawan by Honglien Do, now an American citizen I am Honglien and I lived on Palawan as a detainee with my daughter and three nieces for seven years before we were returned to communist Vietnam. We recognized many of the faces in Brian’s book. Our journey to Palawan started aboard a small open boat without a working motor with 62 other refugees, four of whom died. The sea adventure lasted 22 days without proper food and water. But we were among the lucky ones: we survived it all and made it to the U.S.A in good time. One of our cousins was on Palawan for 16 years. He just got to America last year. It was illegal to leave Vietnam once the communists took over. But more than a million people made the attempt anyway: and tens of thousands lost money to disreputable “brokers” in the process and wound up in communists jails, over and over again. http://www.nowpublic.com/book_marvelously_documents_forgotten_saga_of_war_refugees_and_freedom_seekers   more »