 In 1979, while thousands of “boat people” fleeing Vietnam were perishing at sea, ICMC played a key role in the UNHCR Orderly Departure Program (ODP), while also providing legal and safe means of emigration for those Vietnamese migrants (mainly through resettlement in the United States).In 1975, James Norris – one of the ICMC founders, who had by then been President of the organization for over 20 years – won the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.the highest UNHCR recognition for “extraordinary service to the forcibly displaced”.