Bắc 54

An additional 109,000 fled south by their own means, some arriving outside the 300-day period (e.g. after the Quỳnh Lưu Uprising).

The people who fled on their own did so by trekking through Laos, boarding local fishing vessels after payment on spot, or journey overland if they were in Quảng Bình.

The migrants were mainly political refugees who were escaping the impending rule of the North Vietnamese communist government, headed by Ho Chi Minh, that was to officially rule the entire Northern halve in 1955, and to escape potential persecution by the new regime.

The reason for this is because the Viet Minh sought to detain or prevent refugees from leaving, by trying to stop people through a military presence in the rural side and inland areas or terminating ferries in the Red River Delta, interdicting the flow of would-be refugees, many of whom were aiming to reach ships and ferries in Hải Phòng or Hà Nội, as the American and French military personnel engaged in the refugee operation were only present in the major cities, air bases and on the waterfront.

Biên Hòa would later be the site of a small-scale resistance to the new Communist government in the months immediately following the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, because of its high concentration of anti-communist former refugees and their descendants who had fled the Communist government of North Vietnam in 1954-1955.