Their Life

The 40-year-old Li Jinyun, widow of a drowned cockle picker Lin Guo Guang, is working as a babysitter for 500 yuan (£35) a month in Fuqing, Fujian province of China, to support her two sons. Like the other 22 families who lost their loved ones in Morecambe Bay two years ago, Ms Li is struggling to live with the permanent burden on her shoulders - the heavy debts owed to the moneylenders – and to survive on a subsistence level.

Back in 2002, Guo Guang was a fish farmer. "We were poor but we tried to manage," Ms Li said, "But one day a flood came and destroyed the farm, and we became unable to make a living. Guo Guang therefore decided to go to Britain to work."

Lin Guo Guang borrowed 200,000 RMB for the Snakehead to arrange for his journey in June 2003. Like thousands embarking on such a journey, he was searching for choices, opportunities and change in an unknown future. Like the other 22 cockle pickers – and the one-million-strong undocumented workers toiling away in Britain’s farms, factories and pack houses – he left his hometown with the aim to improve living conditions for his family.

Left behind by a fastly and unevenly growing market economy at home, China’s working poor have been turned into sans papiers, joining the undocumented global labour and subjecting themselves to the anarchic exploitation in the informal economy the moment they set foot in the First World.

Lin Guo Guang’s first job in England was on a construction site. "He thought England was a decent country before he got there," his wife recalls, "But when I received his letter, I really began to worry."

"This is a hell on earth," Guo Guang wrote, "We are treated like animals here." He wrote to his sons: "You must study well at school and do well, and never end up working in England like me!"

Lin Guo Guang’s job as a builder paid less than £40 a day. He felt he had to take up a new job offer as a cockle picker via a friend. "The work on the sands was hard, and the worst thing was his boss delayed his wages for five to six weeks. His boss said it’s because the English boss hasn’t paid him," Ms Li remembers conversation on the phone with her husband.

Lin Guo Guang couldn’t leave the cockling work because he needed to have the wages back. "His boss told him that he won’t get paid if he leaves. He told me how he dreaded the work and resented his boss. He said he had to work even when he had a stomach-ache. He said he would leave immediately once he gets paid."

Because the delaying of wages, Guo Guang couldn’t send money home and pay back the debts as he had planned. "During the Chinese new year, just a day before he died, the Snakeheads came to me to ask for money," Ms Li said.

"Three days before he died, Guo Guang told me that he will get paid that Friday. He died on Thursday night, 5 February." When he lost his life, at the age of 36, he was still owed £1,000 by his boss.

"Guo Guang was such a caring father. He used to play chess and write calligraphy with our sons," Ms Li said, "When the bad news came, our sons just couldn’t take it. Our elder son wanted to stop school and start working so that he could provide for his younger brother to study. Our younger son couldn’t come to terms with the loss of his father. When was asked about his father at school, he always replied: My father has gone to a very far-away place, to earn money."

"I didn’t want to believe it was true when he drowned. His body was found two days after the tragedy, but when I saw the picture they sent me, I still hoped that he was alive. A long time after he was gone, when I heard the phone rang, I was still hoping it was him, telling me he was actually alright," said Ms Li.

The 39-year-old Chen Aiqin came from the same town Fuqin. She was a widow with one son of 17 and one daughter of 15. She left China after her husband died in an industrial accident on a building site. After working for a year in Britain, she went to pick cockles. Her children were deeply traumatised by her death. They have been looked after by her elder brother who has two children himself. Survival is all they can ask for.

Guo Bing Long, 28, a farmer in Fuqin, has a son of eight and a daughter of five. He still owed 300,000 RMB when he drowned in Morecambe Bay. The moneylenders and the Snakeheads had been chasing and pushing for money since Guo’s death. His mother couldn’t take the pain of losing her son and the long-term pressure of debts. She committed suicide near his burial site in Fujian after visiting it on Yuan Xiao Day in 2005. The entire family now lives on his wife’s meagre wages as a babysitter.

Lin Guo Hua, 37, a farmer from Fuqin, was married with one son and one daughter of 19. He was in a debt of 250,000 RMB when he died, two weeks after arriving in Britain. His daughter gave up her studies and went to Guizhou province to work as a shop assistant after Lin’s death, so she could help to support the family. His wife now works as a cook.

Wu Jia Zhen, 36, was a fisherman from Fuqin. He was married with two daughters and one son. Since his death, his wife had gone to Argentina to work, in a supermarket, to support the family at home. Xie Xiao Wen, 41, was a labourer from Fuqin. His wife now works in a car assembly factory earning 500 yuan a month. Yu Hui, 34, was unemployed in Fuqin. His wife now works as a temporary garment shop assistant to support their two sons. Zhao Xun Chao, 38, was a construction worker from Fuqin. Since his death, his wife had gone to work in another province Hunan, to support their two sons.

Liu Qin Ying, 37, a farmer from Putien of Fujian, drowned together with her husband Xu Yu Hua, formerly a driver in Putien. They have one son of 16. Her husband came to Britain a year before her. He didn’t want her to follow him. But she was determined. She died on the first day when she joined her husband in cockling.

Another man from Putien was Lin Zhi Fang, 19, the youngest victim at Morecambe Bay. He was a factory worker in Fujian.

Zhang Xiu Hua, 45, was a farmer from Shandong. She is the only victim from the north of China. She came to England to earn money to provide for her two sons. She worked in Britain’s food-processing factories supplying Sainsbury before going into cockle picking.