On this day, 19 October 1945, the UK Labour government decided to deport hundreds of Chinese seamen who were living in Liverpool, 20,000 of whom had been brought to the city to assist the war effort in World War II. The Home Office claimed they were “an undesirable element” in the city. However, in reality the law-abiding behaviour of Chinese migrant workers had received much official praise. Government records show the real reason was that local “authorities were anxious to secure the use of the housing accommodation which the Chinese occupied”. The government had no legal justification for the deportations, so to expel them authorities varied the sailors’ landing conditions so that they would have to leave by a certain date. Any still in the city beyond that point could then be arrested and sent back to China. Even many men with British wives and British-born children were deported, and they were not informed that they had the legal right to stay. Some of their wives were then stripped of their citizenship and forced to leave as well. For others, and unmarried couples, the men were forced to leave their partners and children in Britain, never to see them again.
Pictured: some of the seamen who were deported
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