For escapees: inhospitable shores, few safe havens
Some of them escape across the 450-mile border between Kampuchea (Cambodia) and Thailand, which is dotted with spikes holding the sun-bleached skulls of would-be refugees who were shot down by Khmer Rouge frontier guards. With considerably greater ease, others manage to evade the purgatory of Pathet Lao rule by crossing the Mekong River, the poorly guarded frontier between Laos and Thailand. From Viet Nam, thousands of refugees the so-called boat peoplehave sailed to Thailand or Malaysia in overcrowded junks. An equal number have died in the attempt.
And still they come. Last month 4,752...
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