40 years of people claims

Ernest Foster, of the UK Club, takes a look at the people claims and the reasons for such claims

We are familiar with the tragic events presently unfolding in the Mediterranean Sea, as refugees try to cross over to Europe from North Africa in unseaworthy and unsafe boats. This has similar overtures to the Vietnamese boat people of the late 1970s (when after the Vietnam War and especially during 1978-1979, but continuing until the early 1990s, approximately 800,000 boat people arrived safely in other countries seeking refugee/asylum status). Many boat people failed to survive the passage, facing danger and hardship from pirates, over-crowded boats and storms. For the latter perils substitute today’s exodus from north Africa as being fuelled by people smugglers out to make a quick profit from desperate people.