The Pulau Bidong Island group comprises six islands and outcrops with fringing reefs. Main island Bidong was declared a UN refugee camp for the Vietnamese boat people and remained under the management of UNHCR and the Malaysian Police for over a decade from the 70’s to the 80’s.

No visitors were allowed on or around the Pulau Bidong islands. The Vietnamese, in frantic bids to escape rule, utilized all available means to leave their country. They escaped in boats of any shape and size including barges, fishing boats, tugboats, river ferries and even in boats that were only slightly larger than the average rowboat you find on lakes in the park.

It boggles the mind to know how these people, cramped by the tens and hundreds, into little crafts, mostly unsafe for the sea, crossed the South China Sea in absolute desperation to find freedom. The ideal time to escape then was the period of the northeast monsoon (December to February) when the NE winds assisted their journey towards the Malaysian peninsula. Winds mean waves, monsoonal waves. Hence many boats did not make journey’s end and thousands of refugees drowned. Of these, hundreds, maybe thousands are children.