Public Meeting

Wednesday 7^th July 2004

2:00 – 5:00 pm public meeting 
55 St. Ann's Church, Dean Street (Shaftesbury Avenue end), London W1

The Monitoring Group is organising a public meeting on the lessons to be learnt from the experience of Dover 58.  What need to be done to support the families of the deceased, the survivors and the Chinese community following the Morecambe Bay Tragedy?

In June 2000, fifty-eight Chinese suffocated to death in the back of a lorry entering Dover on a hot summer day.  Two survivors, who were given police protection and granted special leave to remain in UK; assisted police in its investigation of the tragedy.

Following the Dover tragedy, it took the police more than three months to identify the bodies. Families of the deceased were denied entry to the UK to arrange their love ones’ funerals and the bodies were eventually sent back to China in January 2001.

Earlier this year Amie Tsang & Co and Harold Stock & Co successfully secured compensation for the relatives of the deceased.

In February 2004, twenty-one Chinese drowned to death in the freezing water of Morecambe Bay on a cold winter night.  Local Chinese say there are still more bodies to be found.  Twelve survivors were being treated as murder suspects, although they have now been eliminated from the investigation.  Such treatment caused panic amongst the survivors.  The police are now having difficulties gaining their co-operation of the survivors while they continuing investigating.

The police have now identified the 21 bodies recovered from the sea, and the Government and the Chinese Embassy are in discussion about funeral arrangement.  Three solicitor firms – Amie Tsang & Co, David Tang & Co, and Harold Stock and Co are working together to help the families of the deceased.

The UK Chinese rights organisation, Min Quan said that the Morecombe Bay tragedy was a direct result of the government's inhumane immigration and asylum policies.  Jabez Lam of Min Quan said:  "This tragedy was an accident waiting to happen. In the Dover 58 tragedy in June 2000, 58 Chinese nationals suffocated in the back of a lorry. The victims were pushed by government policies into the hand of criminals and lost their lives.  But instead of responding to calls to grant the right to work to all workers, the government tightened immigration and asylum controls. By denying welfare support and the opportunity to work to asylum seekers, the government has created a group of vulnerable workers. 

"These workers are being pushed by government policies to despair, taking any casual work offered to them with the inevitable result that they are driven into the hands of unscrupulous employers, gangmasters, and organized criminals in the most exploitative and unsafe working conditions, which led to the Morecambe Bay tragedy. 

"We are witnessing a repeat of the Dover 58 tragedy. The victims, their families, and the Chinese community are being criminalised by the authorities and some sections of the media.  An atmosphere of fear has rapidly engulfed the Chinese community.  The families of the deceased are afraid to come forward and identify their loved ones, or assist the police in bringing to justice those responsible for their deaths." 

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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