A powerpoint telling the story of the fate of the Chinese cockle-pickers of Morecambe Bay. Leads into an investigative inquiry into who was responsible.

1. 3 p.m.
Image © John Hawkins

2. Millions
finishing school
Image © John Hawkins

3. Tens of millions
still at work
Image © John Hawkins

4. Thousands
wondering what to do
this evening…
Image © John Hawkins

5. And 23 starting
work here…

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.

7. Image © Corbis

8. Hundreds of people make
their living from the bay,
picking cockles from the
mud to sell in restaurants
and supermarkets
Image © View Images

9. 3pm, February 5th, 2004
A group of cockle pickers make
their way across the bay to
begin work…
Image © http://www.ghosts.uk.com/

10. The bay is a treasure-trove of cockles.
If every one could be harvested,
they’d be worth £6m a year.
Image © http://www.ghosts.uk.com/

11. The group hurry out to the bay – the
tide is out and they don’t have much
time. For some, it’s their first day on
the bay…
Image © http://www.ghosts.uk.com/

12. Inexperienced, the group work for as long
as their ‘gang’ boss tells them…
Image © Getty Images

13. As darkness falls, the tide
begins to come in…
Image © Getty Images

14. They realise too late.
They are trapped.
Image © http://www.ghosts.uk.com/

15. They have no safety equipment.
Many cannot swim.
The water is freezing.

16. One man calls his wife on his
mobile phone and says:
"Tell the family to pray for me.
It's too close. I am dying.”

17. The alarm is raised.
Emergency services rush to the
scene.

18. Some make it to higher
ground. They are rescued
and brought ashore
Image © BBC News

19. People are rushed to
hospital
Image © Phil Noble, Press Association

21. The next morning, the extent
of the tragedy becomes clear.
Image © Bryan Heard

22. 23 people have lost their lives.

23. Who were they?
Image © kingsdude, Flickr.com

24. 23 people
whose families lived
5000 miles away

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.

26. Family File
Image © http://www.ghosts.uk.com/
Liu Qin Ying was a farmer and Xu Yu
Hua was a driver in Fujian. They are
husband and wife, and were
drowned together on the same night
at Morecambe Bay. They have one
son of 18 and a younger disabled
daughter. Xu Yu Hua came to Britain
a year before his wife. He didn't want
her to follow him. But she was
determined. She died on the first day
when she joined her husband in
cockling. Her body was never found.
Xu Yu Hua’s elderly sister says:
“They left to go to work in England and endured a subhuman working
life, just to improve our lives at home. Their deaths have brought so
much pain to all of us. And since then, we have been living in debt."

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 "snakeheads", 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
"criminalised": "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. • GHOSTS by Nick Broomfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNBwat6RT