Boat People is a term usually referring to illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who arrive en masse in old or crudely-made boats. These people were prepared to risk everything in their search for freedom. In the years following the Vietnam War (1975-1996), close to two million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. If life in Vietnam was unbearable, life on the South China Sea was even worse. Refugees faced a host of perils: Typhoons, overcrowded and leaky boats, a lack of navigational tools, brutal pirates, starvation, dehydration and illness. Over half a million human lives perished at sea. Survivors sometimes languished for years in Refugee Camps. The luckier ones were taken in by countries like The United States, Canada, Australia, and some countries in Europe.

The troubles of the boat people became an international humanitarian crisis. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), set up refugee camps in neighboring countries to process the "boat people." Camps were set up in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. According to stories told by the Vietnamese refugees, the conditions at the camps were appalling. Each arrival had a different story, but the theme was common. All were seeking resettlement in a third country. In many cases parents still in Vietnam used life savings to put a child on a boat departing the coast of their homeland. Their plan was for the child to win refugee status in a third country, a status that would be the anchor for the rest of the family following. Most of those parents are still disconnected from their children.