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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of boat people

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

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

This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party's repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.

From BBC • Jan. 5, 2025

However, only people being towed behind a boat, people on motor-powered personal watercraft and children 12 years or younger on moving boats 19 feet or smaller have to wear them.

From Seattle Times • May 20, 2022

Embassy and with the tragedy of the Vietnamese boat people.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2021

Refugees known as "boat people" continued to leave Vietnam for more than a decade after the Communist takeover, particularly during the late '70s.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge