The Morecambe Bay cockle pickers tragedy: a survivor’s story

Li Hua was trafficked by ‘snakeheads’ from China via Moscow to the UK. It took a year to reach Morecambe. And on his first day as a cockle picker, disaster struck

Li Hua knew very little about England before leaving his home village in China, beyond what he’d read about and seen on television – and yet he already made of it in his imagination something magnificent and welcoming. In the early negotiations with Mr Chang, the local gang boss, Li was told the journey would take only a few weeks and that, at the end of it, he would be guaranteed work in a factory or restaurant. He would be reunited with his wife as soon as he’d found somewhere of his own to live, he was told. The gang – Li called them “snakeheads” – demanded an initial cash payment (the equivalent back then of £10,000) and it was explained to him that he

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