2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster

Location	Morecambe Bay, England
Cause of Death	Drowning
Fatalities	23 (21 bodies recovered)
Survivors	15
Perpetrator	Lin Liangren

The Morecambe Bay cockling disaster (Chinese: 拾貝慘案 Shi bèi cǎn'àn, "Cockle tragedy") occurred on the evening of 5 February 2004 at Morecambe Bay in North West England, when at least 21 Chinese undocumented migrant labourers were drowned by an incoming tide after picking cockles off the Lancashire/Cumbrian coast.

David Anthony Eden Sr. and David Anthony Eden Jr., a father and son team from England, had unlawfully hired a group of Chinese workers to pick cockles; they were to be paid £5 per 25 kg of cockles, (9p per lb), far less than the typical local rate at the time. The Chinese had been imported unlawfully via containers into Liverpool and were hired out through local criminal agents of international Chinese Triads. The cockles to be collected are best found at low tide on sand flats at Warton Sands, near Hest Bank. The Chinese workers were unfamiliar with local geography, language, and custom. They were cut off by the incoming tide in the bay at around 9:30 pm.

Although the emergency services were alerted by a mobile phone call made by one of the workers, only one worker was rescued from the waters. This was partly because the phone call was unclear both to the extent and severity of the danger, and to their location, presumably through a lack of English language ability. A total of 21 bodies, of men and women between the ages of 18 and 45, were recovered from the bay after the incident. Two of the victims were women, the vast majority were young men in their 20s and 30s, with only two being over 40 and only one, a male, under 20. Most of the victims were previously employed as farmers, and two were fishermen. All of the bodies of the victims were found, at a variety of trajectories, at nine locations between the cockling area and shore indicating that the majority had attempted to swim but had been overcome partly, or largely, by hypothermia. Four of the victims died after the truck they used to reach the cockling area became overwhelmed by water. A further two cocklers were believed to have been with those drowned, with remains of one being found in 2010.

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