133. Memorandum to the Files1
SUBJECT
- Refugees
[1 line not declassified] told reporting officer (12/11) details of a cable dated 12/8 from [less than 1 line not declassified] in Hanoi based on their Ambassador’s recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City. According to the report, there are now two functioning prices for overseas exodus by SRV residents, one price for Sino-Viets and one for Vietnamese. The Hoa must pay between 11 and 12 gold taels per person ($US 200 per tael) while the Vietnamese must pay 14. Children go for half price. Higher price for Vietnamese is based partially on the need to have extra documentation forged to state that they are Chinese and not native Vietnamese; this requires an additional $150 to $200 just for the documentation.
Once payment is made to officials, a boat is arranged for the departees and a permit for departure is issued. This has now become so regularized as to permit departures from Ho Chi Minh City itself and not just from the coast. (About 3 weeks ago a boat capable of handling about 200 persons and laden down with 600 capsized in the Saigon River with most of the passengers drowning. Vietnamese authorities turned over the bodies to next of kin on following day.) Persons traveling under these arrangements are permitted to take the international allowance of 20 kilos of personal baggage per person.
There is also a semi-official organization method whereby several families contact a ship owner who, for the general price of $500 to $1,000 per person, arranges to get the exit permit for his boat—most of the fee goes for the permit.
- Source: Department of State, Vietnam General Files for 1978, Lot 80D307, General Memos. Confidential. Drafted by Dennis G. Harter (EA/VLC). Copies were sent to Kenneth Bleakley (EA), J. Friedman (EA/RA), Gerald Scott (HA), and EA/TIMBS.↩