The journey to freedom as a boat person

The reunification of Vietnam in 1975 is portrayed by Vietnamese history books as a joint effort of the population in fighting against Western power to regain control of their country. However, Paul Nguyen has a very different idea: “Well, they don’t teach proper history in Vietnam anymore.”

Paul, now 57, was born and raised in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), and his family very much embraced the capitalist regime which occupied the city at the time. “We loved it, my father was only an office worker but still managed to provide for his nine children and wife”. Unfortunately for Paul and his family, “A few months before the unification, my mother begged my father to take everything out of the bank since her intuition told her the Communists would win.”, his mother ended up being right.

The changes after that happened too fast. His father lost his job, his family in turmoil as the breadwinner was no longer winning bread, his mother, who didn’t have a job, was now forced to make ends meet. As the second son, he then had the responsibility to help shoulder his family’s weight as his eldest brother was unable to due to a childhood head injury leaving him ill. Every day after school Paul would either go to the market to help his mother sell noodles or help his father with his carpentry work. But it was the change in society that struck him the hardest. “I was never the brightest kid, but since I was the son of an ex-capitalist officer, I was immediately failed in my subjects.” Seeing that there was no future for their children, Paul’s parents made a difficult decision: to send him abroad. “It was considered suicide”, Paul exclaimed. Back then, the only way for a non-governmental family to escape abroad is via boat with no guarantee of survival. But to be able to get on the boat, they must first evade the Viet Congs, North Vietnam’s communist soldier force who strolled the streets seeking out capitalist rebels. “My parents and my youngest brother were jailed while trying to board a boat. He was 3 years old!”

It took five years for Paul’s mother to stabilise her business and for her to save up enough money to send her son away. And so, on the 18th of March 1980, just two months after he turned 18, Paul’s life was changed forever as he was the first in his family to become a ‘boat person’. “When I first saw the boat, my immediate thought was that it wasn’t made to carry 80 people. But like sardines in a can we were crammed in there”. As expected, his journey onboard wasn’t at all easy: “It was excruciating seeing bodies of people who just talked to you yesterday being thrown off the boat.” Until now Paul still doesn’t know how many days he spent on that boat before a British ship picked him up: “I was just happy that I survived the dreadful journey!”

The trip certainly gave him an opportunity to start anew. He started integrating into British society by going to school. “My English teacher kept going on about how I was ‘killing his language’, but I know he meant well.” Having always been blessed with a talent for languages, Paul quickly picked up English, and later on German as he came there to take care of his younger siblings who were picked up by German boats: “I didn’t want to be limited, I’m thriving to change my fate!” Being an ambitious man, Paul juggled school, then university and his part-time job at Burger King. “That boat journey, albeit atrocious, clearly changed my life and made me who I am today. I dare not imagine what would have happened if I didn’t take that chance!”

Nowadays, Paul no longer has the energy he once possessed fresh off the boat. He is now enjoying early retirement with his family in London, England. “My children cannot relate to my experiences since they grow up in such different environments. It’s almost like we have different cultures, but they teach me how to embrace cultures different to my own”. He’s also very proud of his eldest daughter, who’s studying to become a journalist, claiming she has ambitions to bring the story of his community to bigger platforms. “Experiences of one community are not necessarily exclusive to them. They can be shared since humans have empathy, and empathy connects people”, concludes Paul with a smile.