Orderly Departure from Vietnam: Cold War Anomaly or Humanitarian Innovation? Refugee Survey Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 1

In May 1979, UNHCR and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a program for legal emigration from Vietnam, known as the Orderly Departure Program, or ODP. The ODP was intended to make it possible for persons wishing to leave Vietnam to do so in a safe and orderly manner, rather than having to join the ranks of the Vietnamese boat people. It is the only time UNHCR has extended its assistance on a large scale to help persons to leave their country of origin. Well over half a million people emigrated from Vietnam under the auspices of the program. The existence of the ODP made it possible for the international community to reach consensus on how to tackle problems relating to Vietnamese refugees and asylum-seekers at two major conferences, once in 1979 and another in 1987. This article explores the origins of the program in the context of the Cold War and the aftermath of the American withdrawal from Vietnam, attitudes within UNHCR to the program, and the contribution the ODP made to resolving the Vietnamese refugee crisis.