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tenpence
Joined: 24 Feb 2003
Posts: 174
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 Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 10:40 am Post subject: Tides kill 19 cockle pickers |
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Ten bodies were found today by rescuers searching for a group of cockle pickers missing after they were trapped in rising tides at Morecambe Bay, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
A huge rescue operation was launched after 23 people, believed to be Chinese, were reported missing on the madflats at 9.10pm last night....
more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1142372,00.html |
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tenpence
Joined: 24 Feb 2003
Posts: 174
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 6:08 pm Post subject: Deport all asylum seekers on sight, urges Chinese leader |
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Don't know if anyone saw this article in the Telegraph over the weekend?
So much for humanity for our fellow men.
By Simon Caldwell and David Millward
(Filed: 07/02/2004)
Chinese asylum seekers should be "deported on sight", a senior member of Britain's Chinese community demanded yesterday.
Thomas Chan laid the blame for the deaths of the 19 workers in Morecambe Bay at the feet of the Government's "muddled" asylum system.
Mr Chan, a director of the London-based Chinese in Britain Forum, called for an amnesty for an estimated 70,000 Chinese working illegally in Britain. But he said the Government must then get tough and stop any others from entering.
"If we acted like other EU countries and turned them round right away it would act as a deterrent to people who may be thinking of coming over," said Mr Chan, a member of the Home Office race equality advisory panel.
"At the moment, we are still using the Geneva Convention and the United Nations convention on refugees and asylum seekers, unlike our European counterparts who would deport migrants on sight."
Mr Chan thought illegal Chinese migrants should be allowed to become taxpaying workers in Britain's 10,000 Chinese take-aways and 5,000 Chinese restaurants, many of which, he said, were forced to recruit kitchen staff from Hong Kong and Macau.
His views were echoed by other members of Britain's Chinese community, including Jabez Lam, who works with Chinese asylum seekers in London and who described the Morecambe Bay deaths as a "tragedy waiting to happen".
He said: "The immigration system has created a group of vulnerable workers that employers know they can super-exploit and workers cannot complain."
Jia He, the vice president of the Chinatown Chinese Association in London, said it would be a mistake to assume all the dead were in Britain illegally.
He said that even Chinese migrants granted asylum remained vulnerable to exploitation, especially if they were unable to speak English.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said they would not comment until all the victims had been identified.
A peer, whose estate includes a small part of Morecambe Bay, called yesterday for the tightening up of the licensing system to protect the cocklebeds from unscrupulous gangmasters and to protect their workers from the tides.
Lord Cavendish called on the North Wales and North West Sea Fisheries Committee to strengthen bylaws governing access to the foreshore.
The committee is responsible for the management of inshore fisheries up to six nautical miles from the coast. Although permits were required to fish on the cockle beds, there is no limit to the number that can be issued.
Last year Lord Cavendish closed access to the foreshore from his estates near Flookburgh, south Cumbria, following talks with local fishermen who had plied their trade on the beach for many years.
"It is a fluctuating harvest, which peaks every couple of years. When there is a bonanza, there is this new phenomenon of raiders coming in," he said.
Cockling on the beach was unregulated and some raiders could earn up to £1,000 a week. Lord Cavendish feared their activities had not only threatened ecological disaster but also put lives at risk.
"I know, having been brought up on the estuary, that it is an extremely dangerous place. I am involved with Guides over the Sands, a group that has been here since Elizabethan times, which recognises the dangers.
"The graveyard is full of people who went down. There is huge respect for the tidal movements here." |
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Guest
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| Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2004 5:57 pm Post subject: Re: Deport all asylum seekers on sight, urges Chinese leader |
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SO SAD ,, IT'S HAPPENED JUST A DAY ATER CHINESE NEW YEARS,,, WHAT FOR ILLEGAL COMING TO UK ? £ REALLY THAT ATTEMTING ??
| tenpence wrote: | Don't know if anyone saw this article in the Telegraph over the weekend?
So much for humanity for our fellow men.
By Simon Caldwell and David Millward
(Filed: 07/02/2004)
Chinese asylum seekers should be "deported on sight", a senior member of Britain's Chinese community demanded yesterday.
Thomas Chan laid the blame for the deaths of the 19 workers in Morecambe Bay at the feet of the Government's "muddled" asylum system.
Mr Chan, a director of the London-based Chinese in Britain Forum, called for an amnesty for an estimated 70,000 Chinese working illegally in Britain. But he said the Government must then get tough and stop any others from entering.
"If we acted like other EU countries and turned them round right away it would act as a deterrent to people who may be thinking of coming over," said Mr Chan, a member of the Home Office race equality advisory panel.
"At the moment, we are still using the Geneva Convention and the United Nations convention on refugees and asylum seekers, unlike our European counterparts who would deport migrants on sight."
Mr Chan thought illegal Chinese migrants should be allowed to become taxpaying workers in Britain's 10,000 Chinese take-aways and 5,000 Chinese restaurants, many of which, he said, were forced to recruit kitchen staff from Hong Kong and Macau.
His views were echoed by other members of Britain's Chinese community, including Jabez Lam, who works with Chinese asylum seekers in London and who described the Morecambe Bay deaths as a "tragedy waiting to happen".
He said: "The immigration system has created a group of vulnerable workers that employers know they can super-exploit and workers cannot complain."
Jia He, the vice president of the Chinatown Chinese Association in London, said it would be a mistake to assume all the dead were in Britain illegally.
He said that even Chinese migrants granted asylum remained vulnerable to exploitation, especially if they were unable to speak English.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy said they would not comment until all the victims had been identified.
A peer, whose estate includes a small part of Morecambe Bay, called yesterday for the tightening up of the licensing system to protect the cocklebeds from unscrupulous gangmasters and to protect their workers from the tides.
Lord Cavendish called on the North Wales and North West Sea Fisheries Committee to strengthen bylaws governing access to the foreshore.
The committee is responsible for the management of inshore fisheries up to six nautical miles from the coast. Although permits were required to fish on the cockle beds, there is no limit to the number that can be issued.
Last year Lord Cavendish closed access to the foreshore from his estates near Flookburgh, south Cumbria, following talks with local fishermen who had plied their trade on the beach for many years.
"It is a fluctuating harvest, which peaks every couple of years. When there is a bonanza, there is this new phenomenon of raiders coming in," he said.
Cockling on the beach was unregulated and some raiders could earn up to £1,000 a week. Lord Cavendish feared their activities had not only threatened ecological disaster but also put lives at risk.
"I know, having been brought up on the estuary, that it is an extremely dangerous place. I am involved with Guides over the Sands, a group that has been here since Elizabethan times, which recognises the dangers.
"The graveyard is full of people who went down. There is huge respect for the tidal movements here." |
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