A stranger in a strange land

I always have the deepest respect and sympathy for people who flee their own country because of poverty, war or a lack of opportunities. To come here thinking this is a place of opportunities and wealth, a place where the dreams and the future of all the family back home can be assured because of the money sent back.
It makes me angry that people make money out of people's hopes and dreams: forging paperwork, setting up transport and fleecing them for thousands. Sometimes the poor souls never make it out of their own country alive as they're herded like cattle and asphyxiate in a steel box. Some are cheated and sold into slavery close to home but some are "fortunate" and make it to England, land of opportunity.
Liu Guogong left China just under 2 years ago to come to Britain, a trip that cost him £15,000. His wife left back in the Fujian province of China said, "He would call and tell me how tough life in Britain was. Work was always difficult to find. The hours were very long and the money bad. He said it was hell, that he wished he had never gone." When the news started trickling through that at least 21 Chinese people had drowned off the north-west coast of England, Mrs Li did not worry.
"I knew he was a strong swimmer, not like other Chinese. I knew he'd be fine." In all probability, Liu Guogong's swimming ability borrowed him some extra time but in the pitch dark, with no way to reference a way back to the shore, he was just delaying the inevitable. His was one of the bodies found some time after all the others.
It seems to be that authorities are aware of these immigrants and yet they are a "low priority". In many ways, cockle pickers (or seasonal fruit and veg pickers) are fulfilling a market need for cheap, temporary labour. Nobody from around here wants the work but that suits the ring leaders fine because they can't afford to pay the minimum wage. The fact that these people are kept 30 at a time in ordinary houses, they have little knowledge of English and are often subject to intimidation and threats makes me believe that there is a whole new "underworld" out there that Christians need to be a part of and praying into. This may not be Morecambe but we have our own hidden illegal workforces scattered around the county. Why not start here?