‘Heaven on Earth’: Singapore’s Vietnamese refugee camp at Hawkins Road remembered

Between 1978 and 1996, more than 30,000 Vietnamese refugees spent time at a former military barracks in the city state converted into a temporary refuge

Access to the area where the camp used to be is now restricted, but former occupants still remember it fondly as a springboard to their new lives overseas

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The gates of the Vietnamese refugee camp on Singapore's Hawkins Road while it was still operational and Lea Tran seen during her time there. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:30am, 18 Oct 2021Updated: 3:44pm, 22 Oct 2021

When Derrick Nguyen moved to Singapore 10 years ago, it was as if he had come full circle. The American chiropractic business owner had lived in a refugee camp in the city state for five months from 1979 to 1980, after his family fled Vietnam in the years following the fall of Saigon. His father had fought alongside the United States against the North Vietnamese during the war.

“We went through the Mekong River and headed out towards the ocean. A Norwegian oil tanker picked us up and said that if we wanted to go to the US, we had to stay in Singapore,” said the 47-year-old, whose family eventually settled in Oakland, California. “I’ll never forget the smell of diesel engine, which reminds me of being hidden, put in engine compartments to [hide].”

The aftermath of the Vietnam war, which ended in 1975, brought an exodus of 1.5 million refugees, many of whom did not survive. Between 50,000 to 250,000 people died at sea, succumbing to dehydration, starvation, and drowning during voyages to refugee camps around Southeast Asia. By 1979, about 350,000 boatpeople, as they were called, had arrived on the shores of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore in search of refuge.

Derrick Nguyen as a child aboard the Norwegian oil tanker that plucked him and his family from the sea after they fled Vietnam. Photo: Handout

Between 1978 and 1996, more than 30,000 Vietnamese refugees spent time at 25 Hawkins Road, a former British military barracks in Singapore that was converted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) into a temporary camp. The refugees eventually sought permanent residence in countries including the US, Britain, and Australia.

Today, these former camp residents have been reconnecting on Facebook, exchanging photos of their time as refugees and organising reunion events around the world. Some have sought to return to the Hawkins Road camp or used the group to look for friends who helped them escape Vietnam.