In a historic step, France’s lower house of parliament has voted unanimously to recognise the suffering of people repatriated to the mainland from the colonies in Indochina in the 1950s. The bill, brought by the Socialists, proposes a national day of remembrance on 8 June, compensation and the creation of memorial sites.
The crushing defeat for the French at Dien-Bien-Phu in Vietnam in 1954 brought an end to France’s century-long colonial presence in Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
The Geneva Accords of 21 July of that year opened the door to the repatriation to mainland France of nearly 40,000 people of Asian and European heritage, between 1954 to 1965.
From 1954, around 5,000 people were accommodated in camps in Noyant-d’Allier (Auvergne), Sainte-Livrade (Lot-et-Garonne), or in Bias (Lot-et-Garonne), in difficult conditions, under a special status which did not give them the same rights as the rest of the population.
They included many women with mixed-race children who had been forced to flee the risk of reprisals in their native region, as well as those married to French officials. A great number were from Vietnam.
Forced into oblivion
Just over 70 years later, France’s National Assembly on Tuesday passed a law recognising the country’s "commitment to those repatriated from Indochina” who had been housed in “undignified conditions". It would compensate them, along with their families.
The bill – brought by Socialist Party MP and general secretary Olivier Faure – takes into consideration the "deprivations and violations of individual freedoms", sources of exclusion, suffering, and trauma felt across generations.
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"Even for those who had chosen France as their homeland, it behaved like a colonial power, forcing those who had served it into oblivion," Faure told fellow MPs.
Beyond a lump sum for reparations, the bill would extend a national day of remembrance on 8 June to these repatriates, as well as the designation of memorial sites.
The proposed legislation still has to be voted by the Senate.
Culture shock
Guy Dauchat, deputy mayor of Noyant-d'Allier, is coordinating a museum project dedicated to this little-known part of France's history.
"In 1943, when the mines closed, dozens of miners' houses (known as ‘coron’) were emptied," he told RFI’s Marie Casadebaig.
The vacant dwellings transformed part of this Auvergne village into a camp for the Indochina repatriates.
Living conditions were very primitive, he explains. "But they were more dignified than at the other main reception centre in Sainte-Livrade-sur-Lot, where they were housed in a former German prison camp."
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Specific laws governed the daily lives of these families. They couldn’t leave the camps without authorisation and many lived solely on family allowances. "They were housed for free, so in return, the state considered that they should live in modest conditions," Dauchat says.
"They weren't allowed to have television in the 1960s, for example, or to own their own car. Such things were considered outward signs of wealth."
Accustomed to living in Southeast Asia, the repatriates also faced a culture shock. The few surviving witnesses recall the cold of the first winter and their ill-adapted, traditional clothing.
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Preserving family stories
The National Assembly vote follows decades of campaigning by several citizens’ groups for France to both officially acknowledge what happened and formally conserve those stories for future generations.
Julien Cao Van Tuat, the president of ARINA (Association of Repatriates of Noyant-d'Allier) arrived in France in 1960, at the age of 3.
He told public radio Franceinfo that living conditions were terrible and families were broken up.
"Men had to leave to look for work immediately, in Lyon, Paris, and the larger cities," he recalls. "After living in Marseille and Vienne, my mother arrived alone with her five children in Noyant-d'Allier on 21 June, 1962. She was lost."
Marie Dietrich Adiceam, co-president of ARINA remembers the dilapidated state of the miners’ house she lived in.
The floor was "made of earth, with terracotta tiles. It was very rustic. We were allowed a stove and a blanket per person," the 70-year old told Franceinfo.
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Similar stories came from the Bias and Saint-Livrade camps, with reports of children working for a pittance in nearby farms to supplement their parents' meager incomes.
"When our parents arrived in France, they had a lot of hope. France was idealised", Cao Van Tuat continues.
"When they saw how they were treated, even as French citizens, they understood that they were second-class citizens. Our parents bowed down and sacrificed themselves so that their children could get ahead through education and assimilation."
Similiarity with Harkis' story
Parliamentary recognition comes after a similar law, passed in 2022, recognised France's responsibility in the treatment of Harkis repatriated from Algeria.
These soldiers, who fought on the side of the French during the Algerian war, were housed with their families in deplorable conditions in camps like Bias, which until 1962 had accommodated families from Indochina.
Adiceam says it’s only fair to be considered for reparations.
"From our generation, two or three have committed suicide, many have sunk into alcoholism", she says. "So these people deserve reparation. And above all not to be forgotten because otherwise, afterwards, there will be nothing left for us."
The Noyant-d'Allier camp officially closed in 1966. But Adiceam's parents stayed on, and like many families bought cottages from the town hall. "Where else could they go?" she wonders.
Her story of life is one of hundreds carefully archived on association websites like the CAFI (Centre d’Accueil de Français d’Indochine), with the hope that younger generations won't forget.
