Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants, or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made. The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from Communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War.

Boats have historically been a widely used form of migration or escape for people of limited resources. Most boat people travel without formal right of entry to their destination, but on arrival may seek asylum for various reasons depending on the destination country's laws. They often risk their lives on dangerously crude and overcrowded boats to escape oppression or poverty in their home nations. Some choose to emigrate to better their lives—others, especially political refugees, may be fleeing for their lives.

There is a myriad of places of the world where boat people have undertaken voyages. A particularly frequent destination has been the USA, which has been the objective of boat people from Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Since 1995, the US wet feet, dry feet policy has generally allowed Cubans who reach dry land in the U.S. to stay while those intercepted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard are returned to Cuba. Elsewhere boat people have originated journeys in Morocco, Vietnam and Albania. Many boat people have been attacked by pirates on the high seas, or have been turned away by governments and forced to return, sometimes even to countries where they were also present illegally.