The Orderly Departure Program (ODP) was a program to permit immigration of Vietnamese refugees to the United States of America, instituted in 1979 under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Later, following normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the United States enacted legislation and established direct communication with the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to facilitate emigration from Vietnam under the program.
The Orderly Departure Program office was initially established in Bangkok, Thailand, in January 1980. Over the course of its work the ODP was able to assist nearly 500,000 Vietnamese refugees in resettling in the United States. On September 14, 1994, registration for the ODP was closed. In 1999 the ODP office in Bangkok was closed and the remaining open cases were transferred to the Refugee Resettlement Section at the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The United States and Vietnam signed an agreement on Tuesday Nov 15, 2005, which allows those Vietnamese to immigrate who were not able to do so before the humanitarian program ended in 1994.
Famous quotes containing the words orderly, departure and/or program:
“Science is the knowledge of many, orderly and methodically
digested and arranged, so as to become attainable by one. The
knowledge of reasons and their conclusions constitutes abstract, that of causes and their effects, and of the laws of nature, natural science.”
—John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871)
“This house was but a slight departure from the hollow tree, which the bear still inhabits,—being a hollow made with trees piled up, with a coating of bark like its original.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The square dance fiddler’s first concern is to carry a tune, but he must carry it loud enough to be heard over the noise of stamping feet, the cries of the “caller,” and the shouts of the dancers. When he fiddles, he “fiddles all over”; feet, hands, knees, head, and eyes are all busy.”
—State of Oklahoma, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)