Vietnamese Americans Mobilise To Welcome Afghan Refugees

Kabul Pullout Evokes Memories Of Their Own Harrowing Experience After Saigon Fall

- Madeleine Ngo

In the middle of the night, Uyen Nguyen trudged thro-ugh a grassy marshland with her mother and three siblings until they reached the edge of the ocean, where a small, dilapidated fishing boat was beached on the sand. It set off with 31 people packed on it.

It was 1985, a decade after Saigon had fallen, and their final attempt at fleeing Vietnam. Days later, the boat’s engine sputtered out, stranding the passengers at sea for about a month and forcing them to catch rainwater to sustain themselves. Ten people died, including Nguyen’s mother and two of her siblings. The others, including Nguyen, 10, and her 15-year-old brother, were rescued by fishermen and taken to a refugee camp in the Philippines. Nguyen thought of that escape after seeing images of Afghans crammed on US military planes in August, desperate to leave a country ravaged by a decades-long war. The unmistakable parallels, she said, have compelled her to help Afghans whose situation is similar to what she experienced.

“We can’t just sit back, especially since we’re either refugees or children of refugees,” said Nguyen, 46, an entrepreneur in Seattle who eventually immigrated to the United States with her brother as unaccompanied minors. “I don’t see an option not to do something.”