| An accident waiting to happen |
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| Culture | |
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The 5th February 2004 is the last day of Chinese New Year in the Year of Monkey. On that night, a group of at least 35 young people were out in the beach of Morecambe Bay. In the early hours of 6th February, 19 of these young people died when the tide came in, and 16 survived the tragedy. All 19 died and 14 of the 16 survivors are Chinese. People may think these were young Chinese back packers out in the beach celebrating the last day of Chinese New Year who had a terrible accident. Had that been the case, we would have expected an outpour of sympathy and offer of support and condolences to the families of the deceased and the survivors. It turned out that these are young people being sent to pick cockles in the beach under adverse weather condition in the freezing cold and high tide, earning as little as £1.00 a day. We saw the death of 19, and the survival of 16 young Chinese workers met with immediate intense speculation of their immigration status, speculation of organized crime by Chinese gangs, speculation of organized Chinese gangsters sending young Chinese into the sea to pick cockles to supply Chinese restaurants. The tragedy was met with xenophobia from the media and the local, talks of resentment of the excessive picking of cockles by these invaders causing environmental disasters, talks of cockle picking without license by group of Chinese, even jokes of the compensations the victims may get from the tragedy. This, unfortunately, is one ugly side to the Britain’s culture of diversity. Min Quan takes the view that this tragedy was an accident waiting to happen. A tragedy rooted and caused by the government’s immigration and asylum policies. The Dover 58 tragedy in June 2000 saw 58 Chinese nationals found dead in the back of a lorry entering Dover. Instead of responding to calls to grant the right to work to all workers, the government tightened up the immigration and asylum control. This has created a group of vulnerable workers by denying the welfare support and the opportunity to work to asylum seekers. These vulnerable workers are being pushed by the government policies, and in desperation, take any casual work offered to them. Inevitably, they are being driven into the hands of unscrupulous employers, gang masters, and organized criminals in the most exploitative and unsafe working conditions. This recent tragedy demonstrates the extent of risk and endurance people prepared to take just to make a living. All this is happening at a time we are warned of the decline in working population and the growth in pensioned population. We are bring told by the government that all workers need take out private pension to safeguard a decent income in retirement. The Home Secretary has warned of the lack of manual labour in the construction, the social care and the service industries. At the same time we have seen a stream of legislations criminalising people wanting to work and prepare to work. We are witnessing a repeat to the reaction the Dover 58 tragedy. The authorities and the media are criminalizing the victims, their families and the Chinese community. An atmosphere of fear has rapidly engulfed the Chinese community. The families of the deceased are afraid to come forward to identify their loved ones and to assist the police to bring to justice those that responsible to put them in the dangerous sea. During the Dover 58, it took three months for all the bodies to be identified; it took another four months before the bodies were sent home for burial. The Dover 58 Coordinating Committee was led by The Monitoring Group to assisted the victims family to liaise with the police, to advice and assist the police in its process of identification of all the bodies, to support families in expressing their wishes on funeral arrangements, and to support victims families in their dealing with the police and the immigration service. The Monitoring Group is organizing a memorial service to commemorate the tragic lost of young Chinese lives in the Morecambe Bay tragedy, and this will be followed by a public meeting to discuss what need to be done to support the families of the deceased, the survivors and the Chinese community. We call upon the families of the deceased and the survivors to contact The Monitoring Group. We call upon the Chinese community to demonstrate our solidarity with the families of the deceased, the survivors and the unauthorised workers. We call upon all individuals and organizations that agree with our position to join us in the support of the victims and the Chinese community. Please contact Jabez Lam at 07940 514 268, or Bobby Chan at 020 7839 6256, or David Suen at 07795 218 827. |
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