In December 1978, the rusty Huey Fong commissioned by
the Vietnamese  communist  regime  and piloted by international 
Chinese  criminals  showed  up  in Hong  Kong  with  3,318  refugees.
(Hong Kong Government Information Services)

Hanoi’s first major venture in exporting the ‘ship people’ occurred in the fall of 1978.[1] A 51-year-old Singaporean businessman named Tay Kheng Hong was among the key players in Hanoi’s grand scheme. He was trapped in Socialist Vietnam after 1975 and was not allowed to leave for Singapore until April 1978 perhaps to preparing logistics for the subsequent refugee trade. In June, Tay began to work with his crony, 54-year-old Son Ta Tang who was still in Ho Chi Minh City, to arrange for a shipment of selected Chinese and wealthy Vietnamese from Socialist Vietnam.

An old ship, the Southern Cross, was retained to sail from Singapore on August 24, 1978 supposedly to Bangkok to pick up a cargo of salt. The freighter quickly changed course and headed directly to Ho Chi Minh City port, where it was warmly welcomed by the communist authorities. Instead of a cargo of salt, the Southern Cross collected 1,250 passengers, who paid between 6 to 8 taels of gold to Hanoi for their exit permit and 1 to 2 taels to the crew for their voyage to freedom. (A tael of gold is approximately 1.21 ounces and was worth about U.S.$350 in August 1978, and its price jumped almost three times a year later).[2] The Southern Cross left Socialist Vietnam with Hanoi’s red flag hung atop and under the guidance of an official pilot boat.

Before embarking for the open sea, the freighter sent out a cable for help because it just 'picked up' hundreds of Vietnamese refugees in international waters. Malaysia was suspicious and did not allow the ship to enter its port.  Similarly, Singapore refused to grant the Southern Cross permission to unload its human cargo. Eventually, on September 21, 1978, the Southern Cross dumped its passengers on Pengibu Island, an uninhabited isle in Indonesian waters. The UNHCR intervened and pressured Jakarta to provide temporary asylum for the voyagers while it worked to process and resettle them at a remote island known as Bintan south of Singapore.

The Southern Cross success led Hanoi’s officials and Tay Kheng Hong to begin work on another joint venture just a few weeks later.  On October 15, 1978, the 30-year-old decrepit Golden Hill, bought for U.S. $125,000 and renamed Hai Hong, was commissioned to leave Singapore for Hong Kong purposely to be scrapped thereafter.  As in the case of the Southern Cross, the Hai Hong headed directly to Vietnam’s Cape Vũng Tàu where it expected to collect 1,200 passengers.  However, Tay was cheated by Hanoi this time; and the Hai Hong was forced to pick up 1,300 additional voyagers free of charge.  Tay had no choice but to accept the CPV’s ultimatum because otherwise his freighter would be grounded, and his investment would vanish into thin air. 

On October 24, 1978, the Hai Hong collected 2,449 passengers including Tay’s crony, Son Ta Tang, and left Vietnam for Hong Kong.  Typhoon Rita ravaging the South China Sea at the time diverted the ship’s course toward Indonesia.  Jakarta suspected that the Hai Hong was carrying a massive human cargo and thus ordered the vessel to leave its territorial waters. The freighter set sail for Malaysia but could not get permission to disembark. The rusting vessel then tried to depart Port Klang for Singapore but could barely leave Malaysian waters.

In the mean time, intense investigations into the Southern Cross, the Hai Hong and similar ventures conducted by concerned governments from Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta to Canberra, Washington revealed that the communist government of Vietnam was trafficking in its own citizens in exchange for gold; and Hanoi’s ‘traffic in human misery’ threatened to jeopardize the entire boat people protection and resettlement program. Previously, most refugees who reached freedom on small boats were offered temporary shelter pending resettlement in countries of final asylum.  In cases involving huge ships such as the Southern Cross and the Hai Hong, the request for refugee protection by the passengers on board was questioned by many policy makers including those with the UNHCR. How could those ship people be qualified as refugees in order to receive protection and care at the expense of the international community when they left Socialist Vietnam by open arrangement and with Hanoi’s assistance and assurance? A claim of fear of persecution as defined by the Convention Refugee definition could hardly be asserted by those passengers, who were ferried by communist officials to board big boats and ships such as the Southern Cross and the Hai Hong.

            Australia demanded that the Hai Hong venture and similar undertakings had to fail; otherwise, there was no way to stop Hanoi’s active role in the trafficking of its citizens.[3] Michael MacKellar, Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, stated: ‘We now have the first indications that unscrupulous people are attempting to profiteer in the present Indochinese refugee situation… Australia has played a major part in accepting many thousands of genuine refugees, but I give strong warning that we shall not accept cases involving subterfuge.’  Indonesia, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries shared Australian view on the issue. 

            Initially, the UNHCR was considering the possibility of classifying the Hai Hong passengers as illegal immigrants.  However, as the passengers’ health declined due to poor living conditions on the rusty freighter, humanitarianism and emotionalism replaced legalism and rationalism and forced the UNHCR to declare publicly that it ‘considered them (the Hai Hong passengers) refugees.’

            The Hai Hong saga ended in November 1978, but Hanoi’s ‘freedom for sale’ project did not cease with this incident because the Vietnamese Communist Party refused to give up lucrative dividends from its minimal investment in the trade in human misery, especially when the international community was still paralyzed by the initial shock. In subsequent months, Hanoi sent out many human cargoes often consisted of a few hundred fare-paying passengers or less; however, there were also several huge cargoes that contained thousands of voyagers on foreign-registered rusty ships, and these massive charter departures eventually sparked severe international condemnation. 

            In December 1978, the Huey Fong showed up in Hong Kong harbor with 3,318 refugees.[4] Three days later, the Tung An ferried a human cargo consisted of 2,318 Asylees to the Philippines. Two months later, Hong Kong saw another delivery of 2,651 ship people on the Skyluck, which earlier dropped 600 Asylees on Palawan Island in Filipino waters. On May 26, 1979, the Sen On, also known first as the Kina Maru and then the Seng Cheong, ran aground on Lantau Island of Hong Kong with 1,433 ship people.

            Hanoi’s collaboration with international syndicates to ‘traffic in human misery’ did not end until the international community voiced its strong objections and the overseas racketeers were threatened by their governments to disengage therefrom or else face severe criminal and financial punishments. Hsu Wen-hsin, captain of the Huey Fong, his 6 officers and 4 business associates were indicted on human trafficking charges by the Hong Kong government as the vessel was allowed entry on January 19, 1979.[5]  Hsu, his six officers and one of the four businessmen were eventually convicted and received jail sentences totaling more than 60 years. The Hong Kong government also dealt with the Skyluck operators in the same fashion by putting Captain Hsiao Hung-ping and his 4 officers on trial for conspiracy in February 1979. The same consequence faced the crew of the 387-ton Sen On; four individuals were convicted on charges of assisting illegal aliens to enter the colony. In the Philippines, the Tung An owner was fined for violations of immigration law.  Malaysia detained Serigar, captain of the Hai Hong, and the voyage’s organizers Tay Kheng Hong and Lee Sam by using the Internal Security Act of 1960 that permitted incarceration without trial.  Singapore apprehended Allan Ross and Chong Chai Kok for their part in the Southern Cross and the Hai Hong ventures. The Singaporean government also cancelled the employment permit of Captain Sven Olof for his active involvement in the Southern Cross voyage.

            Concerned countries promptly shared intelligence regarding potential refugee racketeers in order to stop their operations during the embryonic stage.[6] Ship owners and representatives, who were planning to ‘traffic in human misery,’ would be called in and warned about the dire consequences of such ventures. Singapore successfully crushed an international ring involving 4 local Chinese, 2 Taiwanese and a Sino-Indonesian, who were contemplating to pick up human cargoes from Socialist Vietnam with the ‘complicity of Vietnamese authorities’ on the 3,500-ton Tonan Maru. 

            Another plot reportedly using the Lucky Dragon in February 1979 was aborted because Hong Kong quickly and effectively disseminated intelligence. The daily South China Morning Post quoted Hong Kong’s Director of Information Services, John Slimming, as saying: ‘There are reasons to suspect that this ship may be planning a rendezvous in Vietnamese waters to pick up fare-paying passengers.’[7] 

            The case involved the Sea View was more interesting because, as soon as Hong Kong received information that the Sea View was anchoring 16 miles up the main channel of the Saigon river in June 1979, Hanoi’s chargé d’affaires Lê Kỳ Giai in London was summoned by the Foreign Office to hear the British government’s objection to the CPV's role in exporting Vietnamese citizens. Giai disputed the allegation but the British tactic worked. On July 13, 1979, the Sea View was forced to sail from Socialist Vietnam with an emptied cargo.

            As a result of these collective efforts by various governments, the Vietnamese communist regime was effectively prevented from profiting from the boat people tragedy. While severely penalizing all racketeers who picked up Hanoi's human cargoes, the international community successfully applied diplomatic pressures on the CPV to suspend the export of human misery.