The Labour Party Annual Conference 2023
SME4Labour & East and South East Asians for Labour fringe: Forced Deportations: Lessons from the Chinese Seafarers
🗓 Date: Sunday, 8 October 2023
⏳ Time: 11:30
📍Location: SME4Labour POD (Meeting Room 22), ACC Liverpool, Kings Dock Street, Liverpool, England, L3 4FP
On 8th October 2023, The Labour Party hosted a panel with Kim Johnson, MP for Liverpool Riverside; Sarah Owen, MP for Luton North; Tony Vaughan of Doughty Street Chambers and one of the UK’s eminent immigration lawyers; and Judy Kinnin, a key campaigner for the rights of the families of the hundreds of Chinese Seafarers who experienced deportations following the end of the Second World War. Cllr Lotis Bautista, East and South East Asians for Labour, was the chair of the “Forced deportations: Lessons from the Chinese Seafarers” panel.
This part of The Labour Party Annual Conference 2023 has discussed the lessons one could learn from this dark period in the UK’s history and looked ahead to what the next Labour government’s policy on immigration would be. The panel also focused on the parallels between the fact of Chinese Seafarers and today’s immigration system, deportation policies, and how the British government is threatening people, perhaps considering them second-class or even considered citizens. The panel split into two parts: going to the past and looking forward.
The chair Bautista summed up the situation holistically: In the Second World War, thousands of Chinese Seafarers were brought to Liverpool to support the British Army Navy. After the war, thousands of them were forced to go back to China. Hundreds made their home and family in the UK, most of whom stayed in Liverpool. But they also pushed back. The Labour Party was the government during this period. Today, most Chinese people do not know the story of Chinese Seafarers. Several family members do not know they were forced back; many think they just left.
Judy Kinnin, the key campaigner for the rights of the families of the hundreds of Chinese Seafarers, was one of the speakers on the panel. Kinnin shared the story of his father, how tragically he was forced to leave the country, and after that, never found him. She pointed out how long time passed and she wants to find out what happened to his father.
Kim Johnson MP told how they found out about the Home Office’s secret meetings and files after decades of Chinese Seafarers were forced to be deported. She also mentioned the works to clarify lost people, how the Labour Party is working on it, and their plan to edit this topic’s history. She said they would work for “our stories being told the way they should be told”. She added that the Labour Party’s aim in this case is to make an apology, open the door for compensation, and raise awareness.
Lastly, Tony Vaughan of Doughty Street Chambers and one of the UK’s eminent immigration lawyers shared some bold details of reports published by the Home Office 1940’s for Chinese people. He remarked that parallels with Brexit and recent immigrant policies in the UK.
