MANILA, Sept. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- As a part of some 1,600 stateless Vietnamese refugees in the Philippines called the "boat people", 229 people will take a charter flight leaving Manila for Los Angeles, seeking US resettlement, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told Xinhua here on Friday.

    The flight is scheduled on Monday, Sept. 26, arranged by the IOM, an international organization coordinates refugee affairs between the US and other countries.

    The 229 passengers will be the first among some 1,600 Vietnamese "boat people" in the Philippines, who are expected to be approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)and to depart for resettlement over the next four to six months.

    After Monday's charter flight, the remaining refugees will travel on regularly scheduled commercial flights.

    In the years following the Vietnam War in 1970's, over one million refugees fled the war-ravaged countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Those Vietnamese who took to the ocean in tiny overcrowded ships were called by refugee officials the "boat people."

    The stateless "boat people" lived for years in refugee camps located in Bataan and Palawan, the Philippines. When the camps closed in 1996, around 2,000 were dispersed throughout the country.

    In April 2004, the US and Philippine governments agreed to US settlement for the "boat people", but those with Filipino spouses and children were excluded from the plan. Enditem