Boat people's relics attract tourists

Boat people's relics attract tourists

BATAM, Riau: Four motorboats and various other relics left behind by Vietnamese refugees who were stranded on Galang Island in Batam, Riau, in 1980 have become a tourist attraction promoted by the Batam administration.

The wooden boats, two of which have deteriorated due to adverse weather and termites, refugee quarters now also under repair and a well-maintained church are what tourists can find on the 800-hectare former refugee camp.

"A farm where the boat people once grew crops for their survival, now covered by bushes and shrubs, is a place frequented by local and foreign tourists on the island", said a local tourism official on Monday.

Hundreds of photographs of the refugees, their handicrafts, ceramic statuettes and tofu-making equipment are now kept at the inspection office of the refugee camp in Batam. --Antara