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[operationbabyliftqstation]

What was Operation Babylift, Australia’s efforts and its link to intercountry Adoption?

Operation Babylift is the name given to an American government-sponsored initiative that ran from April 3-26, 1975 which saw the evacuation via airlift of around 2,500-3,000 Vietnamese children after the fall of Saigon as the Vietnam War was winding down in April 1975. This year marked the 40th anniversary of the event in April.  In an instant, it saw America’s allies like Canada, France and Australia take part in the effort to evacuate these children to safety. Most of the children rescued were orphans as a result of the war and had come from a variety of orphanages within Vietnam. However, some were not orphans. A small number of these children were put on these planes by their families in an effort to send them to safety. The list of orphanages is provided in the link below:

http://www.adoptedvietnamese.org/searching/orphanage-lists/

As a result, Inter-country adoption became one of the main features of this operation right here in Australia, as well as in the US and Canada. The adoption of these children following Babylift saw the institutionalisation of Intercountry Adoption Australia (ICA). Though it was met with criticism, ICA saw Western governments engage in government-sanctioned adoptions (1). It has been described as one of the biggest international removal and adoption of children that history has ever witnessed.

Not all of the children who were evacuated via the operation were babies or toddlers. Whilst most were under the ages of 2 at the Q-station, the eldest ranged from about the ages of 17.

 The children who had survived the trek, as “most of the ‘airlift’ children were suffering from some illness, trauma, malnutrition or other deprivation on their arrival”(2), were later adopted by various families across these participating countries. 292 children arrived in Australia “amidst a media frenzy (1).” The government’s actions were generally well received as it met was met with a generous amount of public support.

As explained by Chris Sturt, a nurse and quarantine station volunteer at the time of operation at the station, in an article she wrote a few years ago for the Adopted Vietnamese International Website,  74 of these children were taken to Melbourne and 215 to Sydney. She continues to explain that “On arrival in Sydney, 100 of those children who had arrived in Australia were admitted to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children and the rest were taken to the Quarantine Station at North Head, Manly.” (3)

I will make reference to Chris’s insightful experiences at the Quarantine station in a separate post.

References:

(1)   Patricia Fronek (2012) Operation Babylift: advancing intercountry

adoption into Australia, Journal of Australian Studies, 36:4, 445-458, DOI:

10.1080/14443058.2012.727845

(2)   ‘The legacy of Operation Babylift’ by Allison Martin http://www.adoptvietnam.org/adoption/babylift.htm

3)      Chris Sturt, ‘Memories of North Head Quarantine Station.’ http://www.adoptedvietnamese.org/reflections/personal-reflections/chris-sturt-memories-of-north-head-quarantine-station/