Cockle Pickers - Momus

Government requisitions left him with just one mu of land

Not enough to pay for his family’s outgoings

It was humiliating

Yu Hui thought of emigrating

(YU HUI) — A man working in a bakery in Britain

Can send enough money home

To build a big six storey mansion in Yangbian

Abroad I could save each month

More than I make here in a year

(NARRATOR) — And so Yu Hui made a deal with the Snakehead Gang

(NARRATOR & YU HUI) — The wind is strong, the tide is high

In darkness no-one can see the sky

(NARRATOR) — On a forged Korean passport Yu Hui flew from Hong Kong to Europe

He dyed his hair to better resemble the man in the picture

In Paris he tried to find work, but failed

An illegal Chinese with no skills

(YU HUI) — I went sightseeing, called my family

Told them to pay the snakeheads £7,000

This they did, with the help of loans

Secured by relatives and friends

(NARRATOR) — In England Yu Hui thought he would have better luck,

a chance to earn more money

He came stowed away in a lorry

Through the channel tunnel

(YU HUI) — I heard that some who do this suffocate

I was afraid

It was hot in the truck

I ate a bar of chocolate

(NARRATOR) — In London he worked in the kitchen of a takeaway

The boss was hard, and the chef, although from Yu Hui’s own village

Required £200 to give him the job

(YU HUI) — I slept on a mattress I found on the street

Lived with four others above a takeaway

Had to distribute five hundred leaflets every day

Then work eight to ten hours in the kitchen

For two meals, and low pay

(NARRATOR) — When he heard about the cockling work up north

Yu Hui assumed it could not be worse than life in London

He packed a case and went to Morecambe Bay

(YU HUI) — This work is very hard

It is cold and hurts my back

I live in a room with forty others, we eat only rice

I am depressed

I want to quit, but because I’m illegal

I have no freedom and no choice

(NARRATOR) — Five different Chinese teams, all under the control of a gangmaster

Work different sections of the bay

They work according to the tides, sometimes by day

But mostly at night

In groups of twenty to thirty

(YU HUI) — The English cockling teams felt threatened

Because we sieve the tiddlers out, clean our cockles better

They poured diesel on our catch to warn us

They hate us because we are foreigners

So now we work at night, although it is much more dangerous

(NARRATOR) — They lay the wooden planks on the sand

And shake them to bring the cockles to the surface

Harvest them with rakes, clean them up, and drop them in a sack

(NARRATOR & YU HUI) — The wind is strong, the tide is high

In darkness no-one can see the sea

(YU HUI) — And we knew that the tide was rising

Only when it touched our feet

By that time our only escape was blocked

(YU HUI) — If I die, who will pay off the Snakeheads?

My family will drown in endless tears

They cannot pay, not in fifty years

(NARRATOR) — The hovercraft sent by the lifeguard was beaten back by two metre

waves

Twenty bodies were recovered, only one was saved, clinging to Priest Skier

It was not Yu Hui

(NARRATOR & YU HUI) — The wind is strong, the tide is high

In darkness