Israel Will Offer Asylum to 66 Vietnamese Refugees

SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES

June 21, 1977, Page 7

JERUSALEM, Tuesday, June 21—Minutes after becoming Israel's Prime Minister, Menahem Begin said that his first official act today would be to offer asylum to 66 Vietnamese refugees.

The Vietnamese, including 20 children and 16 women, were picked up in stormy seas last week by the Israeli vessel Yuvali off the coast of Vietnam. Their fishing boat was said to have been foundering.

The Vietnamese had been without food or water for five days, it was reported here. The Israeli Government had been seeking without success to have the refuges accepted in the Yuvali's, ports of call at Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.

“For Israelis, the refusal of South Asian countries to permit the entry of these refugees, saved from death at sea by the action of a humane Israeli captain, conjured up the trauma of the 1940's when refugees seeking to escape death at the hands of Hitler were refused entry into British Palestine and other Mediterranean ports.”

Many thousands more were given asylum. Most eventually moved to the United States, but a sizable number remain, many of whom are full, Israeli citizens.


haggadah Section: Introduction