Last week I was very proud to play a small part in organising an event to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the tragedy in Morcambe Bay where 23 Chinese illegal immigrants drowned while picking cockles. In stark contrast, it was a very glamorous event, hosted by Hong Kong entrepreneur, Sir David Tang and filmmaker, Nick Broomfield, who wrote and directed “Ghosts”, a film about the tragedy. It was organised by Sir David, Nick and a number of Chinese and British activists, including myself and Merlene Emerson from the Chinese Liberal Democrats. Attendees came from across the political spectrum, including Lord and Lady Patton (HK’s last British Governor), Labour MP Andrew Dismore (Chair of the All Party China in Britain Group of which I’m a member) and stars such as Annie Lennox. The aim was to highlight the plight of the thousands of Chinese and others who are robbed and seduced by people traffickers to make the perilous journey to Europe in search of money to support their families. We also wanted to raise money for the 35 orphans of the cocklepickers, many of whom had to give up schooling to pay off their dead parents debts to the criminal gangs who led them to their deaths.
The event, at London’s Electric Cinema, included speeches from Sir David and others, a 20 minute edited version of “Ghosts”, and an auction. With pledges and cheques received on the night and from elsewhere, we raised £85,000. This is enough to pay for the schooling of all the orphans until they are 20 years old, ensuring they will never be tempted to make such a perilous and fruitless journey.
This is part of an on-going campaign by myself and a growing body of other activists to fight the activities of unscrupulous gang-masters, greedy employers and the traffickers who bring illegal workers here every year. But we also aim to show that many of these illegals, far from scrounging off the state, are victims themselves; hard-working people, conned into taking inordinate risks in search of a better life for their families.
Neville Farmer, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson, Wyre Forest
