Summary

After the Vietnam War thousands of refugees fled to refugee camps established in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and were processed by Australian Dept of Immigration workers like Stephen Carter - who documented his experiences through photographs.

Vietnam War Aftermath: Background

After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, people started fleeing from Vietnam in boats, arriving in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia after crossing the dangerous and pirated Gulf of Thailand. 

Unable to bear the burden of these arrivals alone, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia managed to organise a regional response to this influx of refugees. This was known as the Orderly Departure Program. Australia, the USA and Canada (amongst others) agreed to resettle refugees, and Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia stopped resupplying or pushing off refugee boats for onward journeys. 

Refugee camps were set up along the west coast of Malaysia, northern Thailand and in Indonesia with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Pulau Bidong in time became the principal refugee camp in Malaysia while Pulau Galang became the principle Indonesian refugee camp.

Australia's Response:

The Australian Government set up the Australian Indo-Chinese Refugee Task Force within the then Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs to select refugees from these camps for resettlement in Australia. The task force's operations were based in the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Members of the task force lived in Kuala Lumpur, regularly travelling to the refugee camps in Malaysia and sometimes to Indonesia, to select people for re-settlement. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was central to the Orderly Departure Program, but during 1981 no attempt was made by the task force to assess applicants against the criteria for refugee status in the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees. 

Stephen Carter, Department of Immigration, 1965-96:

Stephen Carter worked in the Department of Immigation from 1965 to 1996. Stephen was based in Malaysia and Thailand after the Vietnam War attached to the Indo-Chinese Refugee Taskforce during 1978-79. Stephen spent six weeks in Thailand and 14 months in Malaysia interviewing Vietnamese refugees on Pulau Tengah and Pulau Bidong islands and Kuantan city (Malaysia) and Tanjong Pinang (Indonesia). 

Stephen features in a well-known photograph published in the Dept of Immigration & Ethnic Affairs annual review 1979, choreographed to show him interviewing refugees alongside his interpreter and actually taken at Belfield camp, Kuala Lumpur (not on the east coast as captioned). 

At the time he was working mostly on the east coast of Malaysia and travelled by fishing boat from Mersing to Pulau Tengah camp and from Kuala Terengganu to Pulau Bidong. The caption of the photo records that Steve slept on the interviewing table at night. Stephen notes that he had to 'shave and scrub up' for that photo!

Stephen Carter donated to the Museum's collection: two drawings he purchased from Trieu Nhan Vinh, a Vietnamese refugee artist who was in transit to Australia via Kuala Lumpur; the original 1979 Annual Report of the Dept of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs; 24 digital images (most taken by Stephen) documenting his experiences working for the Dept of Immigration from 1978-79.

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