British PM Boris Johnson deflects call for apology over deportation of Chinese sailors after WWII
- Hundreds of Chinese merchant seamen who had been subcontracted into Britain’s navy were taken from their families in Liverpool after the war
- Labour MP Kim Johnson asked if the government would apologise for the lasting emotional trauma caused by the deportations
When a British politician asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson in parliament on Wednesday if he would apologise for the forced deportation of hundreds, maybe thousands of Chinese seamen from Liverpool after World War II, his response was evasive.
Labour MP Kim Johnson, who represents the Liverpool Riverside constituency, said many of their descendants still lived in her area.
“In 1946 the British government ordered the forced repatriation of thousands of Chinese seamen, living in Liverpool with their British families, back to China, causing lasting emotional trauma,” she said in the House of Commons during the weekly prime minister’s questions session.
“Will the prime minister take steps to acknowledge these injustices and provide the victims with a formal apology?”
But in a quick deflection the prime minister replied: “I have happy memories of my own visits to Liverpool,” to a backdrop of snuffled laughs from some of his Conservative backbenchers.