A sample resource available as part of The Migration Conundrum - a new pack for KS3 - KS5 Citizenship developed by the London Citizens Schools Alliance.
6. This is Morecambe Bay, South Cumbria.
Strong currents from the Rivers Kent and Keer,
deep channels and treacherous quicksand
combine to make it a lethal landscape.
25. Each of the victims paid £12,000 to be smuggled across
borders into the UK. Here, they were paid a tiny wage
by their ‘gangmaster’ who would reduce their money
with deductions for housing and travel.
A bag of cockles picked by the workers would fetch
£15, but the gangmaster, Lin Liang Ren, would take
£10 of that. The cockle pickers would receive £5,
but it was easily more than the average income of
£40 a month back home in rural China.
27. A SPECIAL PUBLIC INQUIRY BY COMMISSION
The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
28. The UK Government
UK Shoppers
The
gangmaster
The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
Write in a percentage representing how responsible you think
each group is. Your total must = 100%.
Cockle Pickers
Supermarkets
‘SnakeHead’
smuggling gang
29. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
Lin Liang Ren: The Gangmaster
• On 24 March 2006, a Chinese gangmaster, Lin Liang Ren,
from Liverpool, was convicted of the manslaughter of the
21 cockle pickers
• With his girlfriend, Lin forged false cockling permits for all
the cockle pickers
• Lin Liang Ren had been aware of what was happening, but
for his own reasons failed to alert the emergency services
for some 50 minutes.
• He was jailed for 12 years for manslaughter, and six for
immigration offences
• Mr Lin had been warned by one worker of the dangers of
Warton Sands, the cockle beds off Morecambe Bay. In an
earlier incident, several months previously, he had told
same man he would leave their safety “to God”.
30. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
The ‘Snakehead’ Smuggling Gang
• Article from The Telegraph, 7th
February 2004:
• The desperate immigrants are charged £15,000 by
criminal gangs to help them reach their destination
and then accept a pittance for their labour once in
the country.
• Those who died in Morecambe last week are
understood to have received as little as £1 for a nine-
hour shift of cockle-picking.
• The quot;snakeheadsquot;, as the gangs are known, provide
them with safe houses along the way and forged
documents.
31. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
The Cockle Pickers
• The young people did decide to go to the UK
themselves.
• Before they decided to go, many were told of the
huge amounts of money they could earn by the
gangs. In the film ‘Ghosts’, a potential migrant is
shown a picture of a person with a BMW and told it
is another migrant who has already gone to the UK.
• Julia Hodson, Lancashire's Assistant Chief Constable,
said she hoped the victims would not be
quot;criminalisedquot;: quot;These people are the victims of
despicable gangs. They have been through a dreadful
trauma and we should remember that they all have
families who don't know what has happened.” (The
Telegraph, 7th February 2004)
32. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
Supermarkets
• Supermarkets try to keep the price they buy
products for (from fishermen or farmers, for
example) as low as possible, so they can make
a bigger profit.
• This means the people who supply
supermarkets like the cockle buyers have to
lower their costs, and the best way to do this
is to cut the cost of employing people.
• It means only people who are prepared to pay
people BELOW the minimum wage can
succeed . And that means gangmasters.
33. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
UK Government
• The year before the disaster, the immigration minister
sent a letter to local Chinese restaurants (who used to
employ irregular migrants) saying the owners would be
put in prison for 2 years if they continued doing this.
This meant the Chinese workers had to find alternative
work… as Cockle Pickers on Morecambe Bay
• During the trial of the Gangmaster, it was discovered
that Officials from UK Immigration Services and the
Department for Work and Pensions allowed Chinese
Cockle Workers to work at Morecambe Bay – they
turned a blind eye to it.
• The group which represents the Families of the victims
believes the government is responsible for the tragedy,
saying: “We believe that the Morecambe Bay tragedy
was caused by the lack of protection [for migrants]
against exploitation.”
34. The Morecambe Bay Tragedy:
Who is responsible?
UK Customers
1. Shoppers in the UK want things cheap.
2. This means they need to be made
cheaply.
3. So supermarkets pay their suppliers
less
4. And their suppliers pay their workers
even less…
5. This means only people who will
accept little money will do the work –
and these are usually migrants.
35. Please click the link above to watch Nick
Broomfield’s dramatisation of the Morecambe
Bay tragedy.
