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South Vietnamese Students Face Deportation

By VVAW

Six Vietnamese students continue to fight deportation back to Vietnam. (Originally seven, one now moved to Boston where his case is being dealt with separately.) The students who have been active in exposing the repressive conditions of the Thieu regime in Vietnam were refused extensions of their visas by the Saigon Consulate General's office in San Francisco.

They next applied for temporary asylum from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) fearing arrest on return to Vietnam, and in order to finish their schooling here. The INS, in consolation with the State Department and the Saigon Consulate refused to grant asylum stating that they were assured by the Thieu officials that they students would not be harmed on returning to Vietnam.

The students have good reason to fear. In June, 118 Vietnamese had requested asylum in Hong Kong and were refused. The officials in Hong Kong sent them back to Vietnam claiming they were illegal aliens. Upon returning to Vietnam the 118 were severely beaten at the Saigon airport, according to Amnesty International. Since then, reports state that 14 of the group have died on the penal island of Con Son off the coast of Vietnam.

The students are now appealing the ruling of the INS. These hearings are being conducted by the US State Department. The students are presenting witnesses who have recently been in Vietnam and have seen first hand the brutal repression of the Thieu regime on those opposing his rule. If the State Department rules against them their last recourse is to appeal to the 9th Federal District Court.

The students state that if they are eventually granted political asylum it will represent a victory as the US government will on one hand admit that repression exists in Vietnam under Thieu and on the other will continue to support the corrupt dictatorship.