Sad stories about illegal Chinese immigrants in UK

I read this on BBC news this morning: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4582470.stm
At least 21 Chinese cocklers died in the shore of Morecambe, UK in 2004. The gangmaster drove them to the sandland to pick cockles, despite the warning of surging high tides of that night. These poor Chinese workers all came from Fujian province of China, paying some 20,000 pounds to smugglers to come to UK when they can only earn 1,000 a year. In the end they all got drown in the dark, cold water, and the gangmaster fled on his own when the tragedy happened.

Things like this are actually happening everyday in different parts of the world. In Taiwan, we heard about Chinese smugglers being dumped in the ocean by the "Snakeheads" when Taiwanese coastpatrol found them. They are actually workers from Mainland China in night markets, restaurants, and other places everywhere in Taiwan. Normally it's obvious to tell a Taiwanese person from a Mainlander just by their accent. But I guess if a Mainland Chinese person is from places like Fujian province, it's not easy to tell by the accent. Since we share the same dialect, and 300 years ago we were all from the same province, perhaps the same hometowns.

I also heard about Chinese illegal immigrants cramming in a tiny place in Montery Park. The whole place has nothing or places to sit and stand but mattresses after matteresses. Their situation is probably similar everywhere, whether in UK, US, Japan, Taiwan, or any places they can make money. But the danger of surviving from the smuggleships, hard working environment and bloodsucking gangsters won't stop these people. This article interviewed one of the widows in the tragedy, who stayed in China, their hometown:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4823950.stm
Basically the whole village is full of people who illegally smuggled out to some countries, and then worked really hard to send home money. What they earned in UK in a month, even though very little, will take them a year or two to earn it in China.


I am just feeling really sad, remembering my great great great great...grand father who came to Taiwan along by himself from Fujian. From what I learned in a history class long ago, I suspect that he must have come in as an illegal smuggler because there used to be a ban on emmigration to Taiwan. That's probably also why he came all by himself, without any family. Today nobody knows what happened to him when he decided to move. He's just a name on the top of family tree. Did he every have family in Fujian? Did he ever contact his family in China? Nobody would ever know now. The stories of Chinese illegal immigrants have been going on for hundreds of years. I think it will continue still. It's just that some got lucky and survived, and some never did.