INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES

Center for Asylum Protection (CAP): From 1975 to 1997, Vietnamese refugees

benefited from the world’s generosity and kindness in the form of protection by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees in refugee camps set up across Southeast Asia and in Hong Kong. That has changed. For the Vietnamese refugees in Thailand of today, practically all victims of severe persecution, there is no more refugee camp, no assistance and little protection. Every day they run the risk of being arrested and deported. Our Bangkok-based legal clinic, known as Center for Asylum Protection, now has 5 lawyers and three paralegals; we also have several full-time fellows to help with livelihood for families, education for children, advocacy for those

arrested by Thai police and resettlement support for those about to leave for

resettlement countries. For the past 9 years, our legal clinic has assisted more close to 1,000 Vietnamese asylum seekers; some 500 of them have been recognized as refugees and about 400 have resettled to the USA and other Western countries. Yet, more continue to come.

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According to the latest US State Department report: “Vietnamese women and children subjected to sex trafficking throughout Asia are often misled by fraudulent labor opportunities and sold to brothels on the borders of Cambodia, China, and Laos, with some eventually sent to third countries, including Thailand and Malaysia. Some Vietnamese women and children are forced into prostitution in South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Russia.” CAMSA has directly rescued over 3,000 Vietnamese victims of human trafficking, and assisted in or facilitated the rescue of another 8,000 victims. Many more are desperate to be identified and rescued.

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Resettled thousands of former political prisoners through the Humanitarian Resettlement (HR) Program.

 

Provided refugee protection for high-profile dissidents through Priority One-In-Country Refugee Resettlement Program.

 

Sent lawyers to asylum countries and successfully advocated for 18,000 former boat people to be resettled to the U.S. after repatriation.

 

Extended the McCain Amendment Program, which provides that certain sons or daughters of former Vietnamese re-education center detainees are to be considered refugees of special humanitarian concern and may be eligible for resettlement in the U.S.

 

There are anywhere between 100 and 500 prisoners of conscience in Vietnamese prisons. Since 2008, BPSOS has secured over half a million U.S. dollars in financial support for 130 human rights defenders who are either in prison or in exile. In the first six months of 2017 we raised over US $99,000 for 24 such cases. This makes up only a small fraction of the total number of human rights defenders at risk.

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Please sponsor our projects by attending our fundraisers and donating using the donate link above. All donations will be 100% tax deductible in the United States. If you need more information or want to become involved, please contact us at bpsos@bpsos.org or 281-530-6888.