Word: offing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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They had reached safe harbor on a sail and a prayer. In the past 21 months alone, more than 40,000 Vietnamese boat people pitched their way across the South China Sea to Hong Kong, mostly in rickety, open vessels. Last week 51 of them -- eight men, 17 women and...
The 51 were the first installment of what Britain has announced will be a mass forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people. Those who are to be expelled from the crown colony -- the number could exceed 40,000 -- fail to qualify as political refugees (as opposed to economic migrants) and are...
The predawn scheduling of the operation was meant to minimize publicity and protests. But reporters got wind of it and watched through the windows of Phoenix House as Vietnamese shouted and cried, some holding up makeshift signs saying WE'D RATHER DIE THAN GO BACK TO VIET NAM. No force...
In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater denounced the policy as "unacceptable until conditions in Viet Nam improve." In London, opposition Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock assailed the move as a "shameful episode," accusing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of acting ! "tyrannically." Thatcher denounced Kinnock's criticism as "feeble and nonsense...
Meanwhile the overcrowded camps in Hong Kong threaten to erupt in violence and disease. The refugees' presence is deeply resented, since many of Hong Kong's 5.7 million people have close relatives who have been denied sanctuary and deported to China.