Scandal of Chinese cockle-pickers' deaths

Published on Sunday 8 February 2004 00:00

THE 19 Chinese cockle pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay after they were caught by notorious rushing tides were being paid just 11 pence an hour, investigators revealed last night.

Describing those who controlled the cockle-pickers and paid them a shocking 1 for a nine-hour shift as "criminals of the worst possible kind", police promised arrests within days.

Detectives said last night a number of gangmasters’ names had been passed to them and were being checked. It is thought they could face manslaughter charges if tracked down.

As the incident just after 9pm on Thursday threw the spotlight on the country’s hidden army of migrant workers, Scotland’s most senior police officer, Chief Constable John Vine, called for the creation of a new police unit to tackle the trafficking of humans, warning the problem "is going to get worse".

In Lancashire, Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell said he was concentrating his investigations on the Merseyside area from where he believed many of the cocklers had travelled.

"These were tragic events where vulnerable people were being used to work in physically hard circumstances for about 1 for a nine-hour shift. It is appalling," he said.

"But we are narrowing down the names of gangmasters who might be responsible and we expect to make arrests within days rather than months."

This morning clothes belonging to the workers - some had stripped them off as they tried desperately to swim against the strong rip tide - were still being washed up on the shores of Morecambe Bay.

It was confirmed that 19 bodies, 17 men and two women, had been found along with 16 survivors.

Lancashire Constabulary’s assistant chief constable Julia Hodson said: "I hope and pray there are no more people to be recovered, but I haven’t closed my mind to that possibility.

"Nineteen people are dead. I’m just praying that there won’t be any more."

Asked for her opinion of gang bosses who profit from the slave labour of illegal immigrants, she said: "I think they would be criminals of the worst possible kind."

She said investigators were still working hard to identify the deceased but this was described as a "mammoth and difficult task".

The dead were taken to the RNLI station on Morecambe’s seafront from a sandbank in the northern part of the bay, several miles from Hest Bank. They were then taken to a nearby mortuary.

Among the survivors are two white Europeans, nine current asylum seekers and five people unknown to the immigration services before the tragedy. Four of them have since claimed political asylum.

The non-European survivors were described as "mainland Chinese nationals".

Hodson said investigators were trying to establish if the pickers were working illegally or had permits. She has pledged to bring criminal charges against anyone found to be responsible for the deaths.

A frantic rescue operation was launched involving two RAF helicopters and several lifeboats when the alarm was raised shortly after 9pm on Thursday.

When the tide races in, the waters are said to fill the bay faster than a man can run. Quicksand presents a further danger.

Gangs of immigrants often travelled to the area to harvest the shellfish, with up to 500 people a day picking cockles, according to local people.

Across the UK, there are thought to be more than 100,000 illegal migrants and asylum seekers, who are banned from working, involved in the black-market economy.

They work long hours for low pay and live in cramped conditions, almost totally controlled by their gangmaster.

In Scotland, most migrant workers come from eastern Europe and tend to be involved in low-paid farm jobs, packing vegetables for supermarkets and in the sex industry.

And Tayside Chief Constable John Vine, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, warned: "I would think this is a problem that’s likely to increase rather than anything else.

"We have to be vigilant when we see migrant workers in our communities to ensure they are properly registered."

Vine said police were not aware of a major problem north of the Border but said this was partly due to a lack of intelligence on the matter.

He said the Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency should now be given new powers to go after human traffickers.

Renfrewshire West MP Jim Sheridan has introduced a private member’s bill in the Commons calling for all gangmasters to be forced to obtain a licence and adhere to a code of practice, which is currently voluntary.

There are believed to be up to 5,000 people supplying casual labour and about 1,000 are thought to be operating outwith the law, using illegal immigrants, paying below the minimum wage and ignoring safety concerns.

Sheridan told Scotland on Sunday: "The government have been making positive noises about the bill and 140 MPs have supported it, but we need the government to give it full backing.

"I was confident of getting that support before the tragedy in Morecambe and I think this will concentrate the minds of ministers even more."

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said it was still considering Sheridan’s bill but added that it "welcomed this initiative because it puts the spotlight on illegal gangmasters".