II  The Tragic Journey -  Abduction and Enslavement of the Boat People

These Vietnamese women had hidden from the pirates in caves on Khra Island for fear of being raped. They had been forced to stand in knee deep sea water for days, during which sea crabs ate away much of the flesh of their feet and legs.

   The loss of one’s valuables means little in comparison with the loss of one’s family members. The pirates’ vicious attacks did not stop at robbing valuables but extended to the raping and abduction of women. Young girls were sexually assaulted in front of their parents; wives were raped while husbands were handcuffed.

The worst nightmare became a dreadful reality when the buccaneers forcibly kidnapped the helpless women. From that point onward, the surviving refugees would have to live with a guilty conscience because they could not protect the disappeared victims. They constantly wondered why they risked their lives to take their loved ones to face oceanic dangers and eventually a disastrous doom. They felt at fault because they did not die in their protest against the pirates’ seizure of the defenseless women.

In the first six months of 1981, there were 701 pirates’ attacks on the boat people and more than 145 reported kidnapping cases. One of the survivors in Songkhla Refugee Camp is Ms. Nguyễn Phương Thúy, aged 15. Her baby sister named Trân and she left Vietnam with 66 others on a 33-feet-long boat on May 19, 1981. Forty hours later, the boat was savagely raided by Thai buccaneers. After taking all valuables from the refugees and seizing Ms. Nguyễn and another female, the pirates steered their huge ship to slam into the small Vietnamese craft and killed all people remaining on board including little Trân. During the following 3 ½ months, Ms. Nguyễn and the other woman were held captive as sex slaves and were repeatedly raped everyday. The kidnappers then sold them to other Thai ships in exchange for fishes; the victims were changed hands at least 14 times. Eventually, the 15^th ship dumped them on a beach where they were subsequently arrested and held by Thai authorities as illegal aliens. In prison, Ms. Nguyễn met another unfortunate female victim named Nguyễn Thị Lan, aged 25, who was also kept as a sex slave on an island off the coast of Thailand for many days. After her release to Songkhla Refugee Camp, because of her dire experience, Ms. Nguyễn wrote letters home to plead with her mother and aunts not to leave Socialist Vietnam by boat. Ironically, Ms. Nguyễn Phương Thúy was prohibited by Thai authorities - supposedly implementing an anti-piracy program at that time - to speak to reporters about her dreadful journey.

The list of abducted victims is endless. Ðinh  Ngọc  Lệ Thủy, born February 22, 1967, was kidnapped by Thai pirates on December 8, 1986 in front of her mother;  her mother now lives in Garden Grove, California. Dư Tuyết Mỹ, born January 20, 1962, was abducted at sea on March 13, 1982. Nguyễn Thị Diễm, born December 25, 1966, was kidnapped in the Gulf of Thailand on February 16, 1984. Phạm Thị Khuê Lương, born January 1, 1967, and Phạm Thị Yến Ly, born October 26, 1968, left Rạch Giá port on May 24, 1988 and were taken away by Thai pirates on May 27, 1988. In the case of Tăng Bích Hằng, her family offers an unconditional reward of U.S. $10,000 for information leading to her whereabouts.  

A large number of refugee boats like this one never reached

the destination of freedom after being savagely raided by

cruel pirates or tossed by massive waves.
At least 80,000 to 200,000 boat people vanished at sea.

We do not know how many young Vietnamese girls and women were kidnapped by the pirates, but we can be certain that the number is horrendous. Among the victims known to have disappeared in their request for freedom are Tăng Bích Hằng, Nguyễn Thị Thu Nguyệt, Phạm Ngọc Bích Thủy, Võ Thị Cẩm Nhung, Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Dung, Phạm Thị Ngọc Bích, Phạm Thị Ngọc Hạnh, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc  Anh, Diệp Mỹ Linh, Nguyễn Thị Hiền, Hoàng Thị Kim Chi and Hoàng Thị Kim Dung,  Quách Lê Nương, Lê Thị Kim Hồng, Huỳnh Kim Phụng, Ðinh Thị Như, Nguyễn Thị Ðắc Tâm, Nhữ Thị Thiên Kim, Vũ Thị Thanh Thảo, Nguyễn Thanh Thủy, Ðặng Thị Quỳnh Hoa, Ðặng Thị Quỳnh Như, Tiến Xuân Mai, Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Hồng, Bửu Nghị Liêu, Ðỗ Hoàng Dung, Vũ Xuân Phụng, Nguyễn Diễm Hương, Võ Thị Tuyết, Bảo Trân, Tạ Thị Kim Hoàn,  Trần Mỹ Hằng, Lệ Nguyễn Trúc Mai, Phạm Thị Sương Liễu, Phạm Thị Trúc Ly, Phạm Thị Ngọc Luyện, Châu Yến Linh, Trần Bích Thủy, Trần Thị Mỹ, Ngô Thị Liễu, Tống Mỹ Hạnh, Nguyễn Thị Kiều Dung, Nguyễn Thị Kiều Phương, etc.

The abducted victims were usually murdered after being sexually assaulted by the pirates, who often tried to destroy all evidence of their criminal activities. In a few cases, the victims were known to have been sold into prostitution. In one reported incident, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Trương was kidnapped, raped repeatedly and then forced to work as a prostitute at the Heavenly Pleasure Massage Club in Southern Thailand.[1]

In another case, Ms. Nguyễn Ánh Tuyết and her sister Nguyễn Thị Nam left Nha Trang on December 8, 1979. During the course of the journey, 12 children died after the boat ran out of fuel and fresh water. On December 21, the desperate refugees encountered two pirate ships. Ms. Nguyễn Thị Nam was clubbed by the Thai buccaneers to death and thrown overboard. After the violent robbery, the victims were taken to Khra Island where they were kept as slaves. Three young girls continued to be held captive on the pirate ships.  One of the three young women, Ms. Lan, was detained on the first ship, and her fate remained unknown. Ms. Nguyễn Ánh Tuyết, aged 17, and Ms. Công Huyền Tôn Nữ Mỹ Kiều, aged 17, were eventually taken by the second ship’s kidnappers to a hotel in Songkhla. When one of the buccaneers tried to rape her, Ms. Nguyễn Ánh Tuyết screamed aloud. Her cries attracted the attention of nearby tourists, who quickly intervened and rescued her. Eventually, the Thai authorities got involved and secured the two women’s release. Upon apprehension, the pirates admitted that they were planning to sell the captive victims into the sex trade in Songkhla.

As for many other refugees, they were enslaved on several isolated and inhabited isles off the eastern coast of southern Thailand, one of which was Koh Khra (Freckle Island) 43 miles from Phak Phanang District.  Koh Khra was hell on earth for a large number of boat people, who were abducted and taken there by Thai pirates. The sea terrors took the unfortunate refugees to Khra Island after destroying their boats and kept them prisoners. The defenseless victims had no mean to escape and were isolated completely; they soon became dependent totally on the buccaneers for food and fresh water. 

Once the helpless refugees were taken to Khra Island, all buccaneers quickly learned about the presence of the new prisoners from radioed information sent by the kidnappers.  Thereafter, several fishing ships stopped by the isle daily to rape the women and young girls; some of these victims just turned eleven or twelve years old. As soon as the captive refugees saw the pirates’ colorful ships appearing on the skyline, they fled and tried to hide themselves in cages or bushes.  They were terrified by the daily atrocious conducts, and thus many went deep into the wood to avoid the bandits. Others hid themselves in small caves filled with salt water; their feet were nipped by sea crabs, but they had to swallow the pains because they feared the pirates more than anything else on earth. When the brutal fishermen came to the isle, they quickly turned into savage man hunters. They searched the wood and tortured the unlucky victims to find out others’ whereabouts. The cycle of violence and rapes reoccurred once again.

            Fortunately, rescues by the UNHCR occasionally arrived. The evacuated Asylees were subsequently taken to refugee camps for medical care. A large number of women and teenage girls had to be transferred to Thai hospitals whereby only sophisticated medical techniques and drugs could save their lives. Many victims faced severe psychological problems as a result of the hellish experience that they underwent on Khra Island.[2] Despite how hard they tried to forget the ordeal, the nightmares still remained visible in their mind and continuously haunted them daily.

            The Koh Khra incidents were many and well-documented.[3] In one case, Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Thưởng and her family left on boat no. SS0640 IA on December 1, 1979.  The vessel carrying 107 people was robed by Thai pirates, who then took the victims to Koh Khra. The men were forced to swim to shore from a far distance, and 7 of them consequently drowned. During their 8-day ordeal on the island, the women were raped and the men were tortured repeatedly. On the 3^rd day, a patrol boat no. POLICE#513 anchored a few meters from shore and noticed their loud call for help but did not respond. The pirates came back the following days and continued their savage attack on the captive refugees. Eventually, the unfortunate victims were rescued by a UNHCR team and transferred to Songkhla Refugee Camp in Thailand.

With international aid, Bangkok set up an observatory station on Khra Island in 1981 to save enslaved victims. During a 12-month period, 1250 boat persons were evacuated from Koh Khra, where 160 other unfortunate victims died before help arrived. A UNHCR report described some of the horrible scenes on the isle:[4] ‘One woman was severely burned when the pirates set fire to the hillside where she was hiding in an attempt to flush her out.  Another cowed for days in a cave, waist-deep in water, until crabs had torn the skin and much of the flesh away from her legs.  A young girl who died after being gang raped is buried under a simple slab at the edge of a clearing.’ 

In 1980, a 2-month study taken by the boat people at Songkhla Refugee Camp shows the following horrific statistics:

   Khra Island was not the only hell for the boat people. A temporary camp named Kuku on Jemaja Island was another hell within the Indonesian territories. On this island where Vietnamese arrivers were held temporarily in military tents before their refugee-screening interview and subsequent transfer to other centers such as Pulau Galang refugee camp, Indonesian soldiers often kidnapped female Asylees and gang raped the victims at nights between 1989 and 1990.[5] According to Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thủy, a boat person encamped in Kuku camp now residing in Toronto, Canada, the victims and their families did not dare to complain to international agencies because they feared for their safety. The calamity was unfolded only after a female victim’s uncle was beaten to death by Indonesian soldiers when he resisted their beast-like raid; the uncle’s terrible fate sparked diplomatic intervention and eventually ended the Indonesian savage grip on the defenseless refugees.[6]

Khra and Jemaja Islands were certainly not the only isles whereon the boat people were detained, enslaved, raped and murdered. How many other Khra and Jemaja Islands were there in the Gulf of Thailand? There were at least 52 islands frequented by the pirates, but the local authorities showed no interest in any prolonged search and rescue mission to evacuate Vietnamese refugees from these hellish islands. The official policy was clearly to prevent the Asylees’ arrival rather than to stop piracy; and therefore, various international observers rightly speculated that the pirates and other criminal elements were encouraged by their government’s acquiescence to deter all Vietnamese boat people from reaching safety.

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