We had no jurisdiction outside of Hong Kong waters. But we could see their vessels sinking in heavy seas. It was life or death, right there. We just went. Former Marine Police officer Les Bird tells of the harrowing sea journey to Hong Kong made by tens of thousands of refugees in the years that followed the end of the Vietnam War. As he patrolled the southern maritime boundary of Hong Kong, he photographed their makeshift boats and later the people-smuggling vessels coming in including the Sen On, a freighter ship that was abandoned by its crew and ran aground on Lantau Island. With this previously unpublished collection of personal photographs, Bird tells the stories of these boatpeople the young children, the father who just bought a boat to embark on a 1,000-mile journey, and the disillusioned North Vietnamese battle-hardened veterans all searching for a new life.
Les Bird was born in England in 1951, he joined the Royal Hong Kong Police in 1976 and served for two decades in the lead-up to the change of sovereignty. He was a rural officer in the remote fishing town of Tai O, he was involved in bringing in Vietnamese refugees along Hong Kongs maritime southern boundary, and he chased down the big flyer daai fei smuggling speedboats which carried stolen luxury cars across Mirs Bay to China. Bird is married with two daughters and still lives in Hong Kong. He has previously written a memoir: A Small Band of Men: An Englishmans Adventures in Hong Kongs Marine Police. His website is at www.lesbirdhk.com.
