A Vietnamese national who stowed away on an oil tanker, lashing himself above the ship's rudder, was granted refugee status in the United States Tuesday after being rejected at several other ports.
Tuan Van Nguyen, 23, a welder who lived in the Thu-duc district of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, smiled shyly as he stepped onto U.S. soil at a Mobil terminal in Narragansett Bay."He says he knew when he left Vietnam that it would be very dangerous," an interpreter said. "But he knew it would be more dangerous if he stayed."
The Immigration and Naturalization Service granted Tuan asylum Tuesday, a day after the State Department - for reasons that were not specified - recommended against it, officials said. Tuan will be eligible to apply for permanent residency in one year.
Tuan stowed away on the Cypriot-registered oil tanker Success. Armed with a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, dried food and a plastic jug of water, he hid in a hollow where the tanker's rudder is attached to the hull, avoiding detection during three searches by the 23-member Polish crew. He made a plywood seat and lashed himself to the housing just above the ship's propeller.
The tanker left Ho Chi Minh City on Aug. 28, and two days later, a crew member spotted Tuan when Capt. Jerzy Kolasinski ordered a lifeboat drill 18 miles outside Singapore.
"If I filled the ballast he would be dead," Kolasinski said. "If I didn't stop in Singapore he would be dead.
"I am not happy with any stowaway on board, but . . . this kind of man, who would make this decision, is a man I can only respect," he said.
The captain said he tried to obtain asylum for Tuan in Singapore, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia but failed each time.