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Blunkett backs new crackdown on gangmasters after bay disaster
By Ian Herbert,
North of England Correspondent
The Independent
10th February 2004
Tough new laws to drive unscrupulous "gangmasters" out of business were promised by the Government yesterday in the wake of the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy.
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said he hoped a registration scheme for those who control the lucrative trade in casual seasonal labour could be put in place "very quickly".
Jim Sheridan, the Labour MP for Renfrewshire West, has championed a Commons Bill that requires all gangmasters to be registered. He says it would drive unscrupulous people-traffickers out of business and ensure that those who are licensed pay workers the minimum wage and do not endanger their safety.
Mr Blunkett said: "We will want to back Jim Sheridan's Bill in relation to gangmasters and I hope we can move forward on that very quickly."
Jack Dromey, the deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), said: "Nineteen young people died a terrible death on Morecambe sands. Their memorial must be a new law to end the exploitation of the vulnerable by ruthless, rogue gangmasters who prey on British workers and migrant workers alike.” The TGWU has warned that some 20 per cent of the 3,000 labour providers in the UK are disreputable, hiring workers on pay rates as low as £1 a day, with no provision for health and safety cover. The Government's move came as seven people were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the trip that resulted in the deaths of 19 Chinese cockle-pickers on Thursday night.
Five survivors, including two women and at least one white European, were arrested on Sunday night by Lancashire police, who said they all worked within the cockling industry. The five were removed yesterday from the list of 11 individuals described by police as "genuine survivors" of Thursday night's disaster and questioned at police stations in Blackpool and Preston about any involvement they may have had in organising the fateful trip.
A further two men, who were not survivors of the tragedy, handed themselves in at a police station in Lancashire yesterday. Detectives indicated last night that their investigations still centre on Merseyside, a region which has become a national centre for the smuggling of Chinese immigrant workers. Such is the extent of people smuggling in the area that Merseyside is the only police force outside London to have immigration officers on permanent secondment.
A multi-agency meeting convened to prevent a repeat of the tragedy heard yesterday that three-quarters of people cockling in Morecambe Bay had "no idea what they are doing" and that activities in the bay were "out of control". The claims were made by Trevor Owen, from the Morecambe and Heysham Fishermen's Association, who called for an organised permit system to prevent a recurrence. "The permits should be issued to people who do it for a living," he said. "There are no restrictions. Anybody can get a permit."
In Morecambe Bay, the search for survivors was called off last night and cocklers were told they may resume harvesting a crop said to be worth about £8m.
As they did so, families in south-eastern China's Fujian province despaired of information about relatives who are feared victims of the tragedy.
The family of Cao Chao Kun, 37, who has two children, has all but lost hope. His sister, Sister Cao Li Fong, told Sky News: "A friend phoned from England telling me Chao Kun was working in Morecambe. We haven't heard anything from him since the tragedy and we have been waiting five days."
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Cockle death police find body - 15th February 2004
Cockle death survivors speak out - 13th February 2004
South China's fortune seekers - 9th February 2004
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