Make them legal

There could be no clearer example of human exploitation and its tragic consequences than the recent events in Morecambe Bay. Nineteen Chinese workers, who had paid a small fortune to agents in order to come to Britain for a better life, were drowned while gathering cockles in dangerous tidal waters of which they lacked local knowledge.

Nothing can absolve those who exploited them — in this ferocious and conscienceless manner — of their moral responsibility, but this should not prevent us from considering what part our current way of treating illegal immigrants played in the tragedy.

While the wages they were paid would have seemed riches by Chinese standards — one former Chinese worker at Morecambe Bay says that she could earn £44 per day — it is clear that workers misjudge the expense of reaching Britain and the cost of living here when they do. Many find themselves able to send much of their earnings to their relatives back in China, but unable to afford the fare home.