Influx of boatpeople at the end of Vietnam War chronicled by former Marine Police officer

^{Refugees are seen crowded into a boat shortly after arriving in Hong Kong}

Former Marine Policeman Les Bird has penned a book on the refugees who flocked to Hong Kong at the end of the Vietnam war on rickety boats and ships such as the Sen On and Skyluck. Newly published by Blacksmith Books, Bird’s story is illustrated by 120 colour photographs showing little kids peering through portholes, bemused grandmothers, families crammed on impossibly tiny boats and the HK police officers who motored out to save them in the South China Sea. “We had no jurisdiction outside of HK waters. But we could see their vessels sinking in heavy seas. It was life or death, right there. We just went.” Bird’s book is called Along the Southern Boundary.

^{Les Bird}

Bird, who’s English and joined the HK Police in 1976, served for two decades before the Hand-over. He is married with two daughters and still lives in HK. Previously he has published a memoir, A Small Band of Men: An Englishman’s Adventures in HK’s Marine Police. You can learn more at www.lesbirdhk.com.

^{200,000 Vietnamese arrive by sea during the 1980s}

Along the Southern Boundary is a pictorial record of the influx into HK of more than 200,000 refugees from Vietnam by sea. Bird’s own photos illustrate the book, some taken at sea or in refugee camps. Also published are photos by Bird’s former colleagues that have never appeared in public before. Stories cover the boatpeople who risked everything to sail with their families across the South China Sea to reach Hong Kong. Bird has stayed in touch with some of the former refugees and he reveals what their lives are like in their new home countries nearly fifty years on.

Along the Southern Boundary: A Marine Police Officer’s Frontline Account of the Vietnamese Boatpeople and their Arrival in Hong Kong, Les Bird. Blacksmith Books. ISBN: 978-988-75547-3-8

You can find more at www.blacksmithbooks.com. The publisher Pete Spurrier can be reached at pete@blacksmithbooks.com. A longer article can be found at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10266875/Photos-capture-desperate-Vietnamese-families-arriving-Hong-Kong-fleeing-Vietnam-War-fallout.html