LONDON, March 28: The head of a work gang of Chinese shellfish collectors was jailed for 14 years on Tuesday for the manslaughter of 21 people who drowned on a stormy winter night off northwestern England two years ago. A court in Preston near Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, where the immigrants died, convicted gang master Lin Liang Ren last week after a trial lasting nearly six months.
He was sentenced to 14 years in jail for manslaughter, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and facilitating illegal entry into the country.
The case highlighted the plight of immigrant — and often illegal — workers unable to enjoy the protection of national labour laws.
The court also jailed Lin’s girlfriend Zhao Xiao Qing to two years and nine months for perverting the course of justice and immigration offences. His cousin Lin Mu Yong was jailed for four years and nine months.
Judge Richard Henriques said Lin had ‘cynically and callously exploited his workers’.
The disaster happened in Feb 2004 during a night-time dig for cockles, edible molluscs buried beneath the treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay.
The bay sands are widely believed to hold millions of pounds worth of cockles, a delicacy especially popular in Spain.
The Chinese, many of whom could not swim, had gone far out as the sea retreated but were caught by surprise when the tide turned and the waters started rushing back in.
Li Hua, the only one to be rescued alive, said: “In less than a couple of minutes the water level came to such a high level we just could not move, literally.”
“At that time a lot of memories came back to me, I remembered how hard the journey was for us to get into the country and I thought to myself perhaps this is where I am going to die.”
Sobbing as he recalled his nightmare, he said: “I thought of my wife and my children and it brought tears to my eyes.”
