Vietnamese people in Hong Kong

The Vietnam War led to Vietnamese people fleeing to countries in Southeast Asia and around the South China Sea. Then, in 1979, Vietnam was at war with China and many ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam who felt that the government's policies directly targeted them became boat people themselves. On the open seas, the boat people had to confront forces of nature and elude pirates. The plight of the boat people became a humanitarian crisis and the UN High Commission for Refugees set up refugee camps in neighbouring countries to process them. Hong Kong adopted the "port of first asylum policy", and received the largest number of refugees, with many refugee camps being established in its territories.