Refugee

Acknowledges the 13,732 people who fled Europe to escape persecution by the Nazis during World War II.

Cam Ai Tran and Hap Tu Thai and their two children escaped Vietnam by boat in 1979. Thirteen others on the same boat died and were buried at sea. Tran and Thai are now the publishers of the “Saigon Times”, based in Rosemead, California. For ten years they worked tirelessly to build a memorial to the Boat People, including the tens of thousands who died at sea. In the Spring of 2009 the Vietnamese Boat People Monument was dedicated in Westminster Memorial Park’s Asian Garden of Peaceful Eternity.

In 2005, former Vietnamese refugees who had stayed on Pulau Bidong, a Vietnamese refugee camp off the northeastern coast of Malaysia, returned and erected a simple memorial they called "The Memorial to Boat People". This memorial paid honor the Vietnamese refugee experience and gave thanks to the many organizations and people that helped the Vietnamese refugees. Six months later, the memorial was completely destroyed and discarded. No traces remain except the concrete rubble from the support structure that held the engraved granite pieces in place.

The monument commemorates the Australians who helped resettle Vietnamese boat people during the 1970`s, and dedicated to the thousands of refugees who died trying to escape Vietnam. This memorial is the first in Australia to commemorate the plight of the Vietnamese refugees.