Review of Ghosts (2014) by Kevin S — 01 Oct 2009

A moving and powerful film based on the tragedy that took place in 2004 at Morcambe Bay, Lancashire, UK. 23 Chinese illegal immigrant workers, cockle picking on the notoriously dangerous coast, died after becoming trapped by rising tides. Nick Broomfield, a veteran of creating documentaries, writes and directs. He cast amateur actors to play all the roles to help bring a sense of realism and grittiness to the story.

'Ghosts' is an ambiguous title. In one sense it is the word Chinese use to refer to white westerners and the other is a reference to the invisibility of illegal immigrant workers who are unprotected and poorly paid.

The story follows Ai Qin, a young Chinese girl who pays Chinese snakeheads to smuggle her to the UK in order for her to support her family and child back in China. Once she arrives in the UK she is forced to live in cramped shared accomodation with many other illegal Chinese immigrants. They are desperate for any kind of work to enable them to send money home to their families. Not only are they faced with racism and threats of violence from their neighbours but also from fellow cockle pickers. The gangmasters take them to pick cockles in the evening at Morcambe Bay but they're completely unaware of how dangerous the changing tide can be.

Some facts about the real incident: 21 bodies were found but 2 people were never accounted for, many of them in their teens and some were discovered naked having attempted to swim back to the shore. They were working for gangmasters, slave labour to you and me, they were working for a tiny amount of money to send back to their families. Instead of dialling 999 for the emergency services on their mobile phones, they called their families to tell them they loved them and the majority of them never saw their families again. Neither the British nor the Chinese government were willing to give financial help to the families who lost loved ones.