FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Benefit Scheduled for ‘Boat People’s Rights’

Attorney Lan Nguyen wanted to help his people who fled Vietnam by boat and who have been denied refugee status.

The only way he knew how to help was to offer them legal assistance in their struggle against forced repatriation to Vietnam, he said.

For Nguyen and other Vietnamese living in Orange County, it’s important to not only help refugees but also raise awareness about their plight, Nguyen said.

In efforts to heighten awareness and show support, the second annual “Walk-A-Thon for Boat People’s Rights” will be held Saturday, beginning at 9:30 a.m., at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley.

The event is open to anyone, and participants are encouraged to seek pledges for their walk. Those wishing to participate can register from 8 to 9:15 a.m. at the corner of Edinger Avenue and Ward Street for the four-mile walk around the park.

Nguyen, 28, of Westminster said that last March he went to a detention camp in the Philippines, where he met refugees.

“I was one of them before and I came back to work for them,” said Nguyen, whose family left Vietnam in 1979 by sea and spent a year in Malaysia before coming to America.

At the refugee camp, Nguyen met a Buddhist monk who was not allowed to preach his religion in his homeland. Because he refused to return to a non-religious life, he was confined to the temple. He fled Vietnam in 1990.

“We feel it would be very dangerous for him to go back to Vietnam. He would face serious persecution if he returned,” Nguyen said.

Saturday’s event is held to raise money to send volunteer attorneys, such as Nguyen, and paralegals to Southeast Asian refugee camps to aid those seeking asylum, said Van Tran, spokesman for the Walk-A-Thon Organizing Committee.

There are more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees held in camps in Southeast Asia, the committee said.

Tran said the committee represents 10 Vietnamese youth and university organizations throughout Southern California.

Last year, the event raised more than $21,000 for a group called Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers and drew about 800 participants.

Tran said as of Sept. 30, LAVAS had completed 150 appeals for those seeking asylum. Of that number, 60 cases had been reviewed and 35 of those cases were granted refugee status.

“We look at this issue as a human rights issue more so than any one group’s issue,” Tran said. “We’re helping to publicize the plight of Vietnamese refugees to let people know there are still people being incarcerated and detained who want to seek freedom and don’t have that opportunity.”

More information about the event is available by calling (714) 839-5419, (714) 531-1703 or (714) 267-5430 on the day of the event.