The term “boat people” refers to people who fled from the aftermath of the Vietnamese War on boats in the South China Sea in the 1970s and 1980s. After the end of the Vietnamese War in 1975, the socialist regime persecuted those who had supported the South Vietnamese government. Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who tried to flee persecution in overcrowded and unseaworthy boats died on the dangerous journey. Survivors were brought to reception centres in other South Asian countries, from where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) distributed them to third countries like France or the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. Other refugees were rescued by rescue ships and brought directly to the West Germany. The journalist Rupert Neudeck formed the committee “A ship for Vietnam” whose ship Cap Anamur rescued thousands of refugees.