Operation Lifeline: Canada's Refugee Revolution

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In 1979, Canadians launched a revolutionary private sponsorship scheme to aid thousands of Indochinese refugees fleeing Vietnam. Under the scheme, groups of ordinary Canadians could pay for a refugee to be resettled in Canada. Thousands of Canadians took part, and supported the resettlement of 34,000 refugees in a year. Alex Last speaks to Professor Howard Adelman who set up Operation Lifeline - the first private sponsorship campaign in Canada. Photo: A Vietnamese boat crowded with refugees runs aground on the Malaysian coast. 1979 (BBC)