40: Refugees

From Wikipedia:
"Indochina refugee crisis"

To go along with the 40th anniversary of the Communist victories in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1975 I wanted to include those that fled the Communists from those countries from 1975 to 1997 (since 1997 several thousand people fled and went to the US) and the countries that took them in. The fled by land, sea and air. Many did so after the Communists took control and implemented their re-education camps (with its torture and death.)

 

The United States took the majority of refugees in: 883,317 Vietnamese, 251,334 Laotians and 152,748 Cambodians for a total of:        1,287,399 people

 

Canada took in: 163,415 Vietnamese, 17,274 Laotians and 21,489 Cambodians for a total of:  202,178  people

 

France took in: 46,348 Vietnamese, 34,236 Laotians and 38,598 Cambodians for a total of 119,182  people.

Australia, West Germany/Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Malaysia, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium also took in thousands of refugees.

 

All in all 1,642,179 Vietnamese, 324,107 Laotians and 580,884 Cambodians fled their countries for a total of   2,547,170 people. That may seem like a lot of people, but considering an estimated 2 million Cambodians were killed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979 the number of refugees is very small. You would think that more refugees would have gone to France considering all three countries were French colonies until the 1950s, but they didn't. I don't know if it was because the French didn't want more or the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians didn't want to go there. At least the US finally accepted many refugees considering what we did and didn't do for them during the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indochina_refugee_crisis