My neighbor for a time was a Vietnamese boat person. She was Chinese from Saigon, so after the North Vietnamese communists took over, they were persecuted. She was only 8, but remembers pirates taking the boat and robbing everyone of all the meagre possessions they managed to escape with. She also remembers being thirsty as hell the entire time at sea, and several old people dying on the boat - their bodies were dumped overboard.
Wound up on Palawan in Philippines, and then - Swizterland, of all places.
Being good, hardworking people - of course her family now owns a chain of restaurants and a number of apartment buildings in Eastern Switzerland.
Yes. I feel great black stain as an American at abandoning them to the tender mercies of the Communists.