boat people

American  

plural noun

1. refugees who have fled a country by boat, usually without sufficient provisions, navigational aids, or a set destination, especially those who left Indochina by sea as a result of the fall of South Vietnam in 1975.

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boat people British  

plural noun

1. refugees, esp from Vietnam in the late 1970s, who leave by boat hoping to be picked up by ships of another country

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Etymology

Origin of boat people

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

The four people killed in the Cuban shootdown included two young men -- Carlos Costa and Mario de la Pena -- who only wanted to save boat people, said Gonzalez.

From Barron's • May 21, 2026

Let’s give British Jews the same chance America once gave Irish famine victims, Russian dissidents, Vietnamese boat people, and Afghan translators.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 26, 2025

The tragic flight of the boat people is also a reminder of Vietnam's fraught relationship with its giant neighbour China.

From BBC • Mar. 15, 2023

In 1979, I was two-months old when my parents and I escaped Vietnam as boat people and arrived in Seattle.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 25, 2022

Around me the newly arrived boat people talk excitedly to their friends and family, and deliver them news of relatives in Vietnam.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung