According to international estimates at least one third of the boat people die during their flight - either because their boats capsize and sink, or because of insufficient provisions on board. Pirates pose an additional problem. They capture a refugee vessel, rob all possessions, rape the women and finally kill all people on board and sink the boat.

In 1979 alone, more than 270,000 boat people flee from Vietnam. In the first six months of that year, the Malaysian Coast Guard forces more than 40,000 Vietnamese boat people on 267 ships to leave Malaysian territorial waters and to return to the open sea, where the refugees, including children, are left to their fate, which, more often than not, means death.

On December 25, 1978, after a series of transgressions at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, Vietnamese armies invade Cambodia. On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese troops occupy Phnom Penh. A Vietnam-friendly government is installed, Heng Samrin, a Khmer Rouge guerrilla who before had fled to Vietnam, is declared president.

The new Cambodian government is not recognized by Western countries. In 1989 Hanoi recalls the Vietnamese troops from Cambodia.