'An Agreement to Limit a Basic Human Right': How the Orderly Departure Programme Reduced Freedom of Movement for Refugees from Vietnam (1979)

Abstract

The Orderly Departure Programme (ODP) is regarded as a Cold War success story of refugee management, aiding the resettlement of 638,900 Vietnamese. Western sympathy for anti-communist refugees initially sparked solidarity, but led eventually to compassion fatigue, disenfranchising the practice of resettlement. However, current scholarship overlooks the fact that the ODP installed a moratorium on departures from Vietnam. I use newly discovered archival material and methods to show how the international refugee organization UNHCR undermined refugee protection, by limiting the basic human right to freedom of movement, to accommodate host states - particularly the UK and Hong Kong -in reducing responsibility for resettling refugees.