23 Chinese migrant workers were drowned at Morecambe Bay on 5 February 2004, picking cockles when they were cut off by the incoming tide in the bay at night. Workers made calls to emergency services for help, but partly because of the language barrier, the rescue arrived late and only one of the workers was rescued.

A total of 21 bodies of men and women between the ages of 18 and 45, were recovered from the bay in the days that followed. Two were never found. In total, 15 cocklers survived. The workers were all undocumented. 22 out of the 23 deceased were from Fujian province of China. One was from Shandong province in the north of China.

The Chinese cockle pickers who drowned at Morecambe Bay began their journey of getting to the UK by loaning money from money-lenders and relatives. The fee they paid the smugglers was between £15,000 and £20,000 and it would take them 3-5 years working non-stop in subhuman conditions in Britain to pay back their debts.

Since the tragedy, each of the families has inherited a huge amount of debt of up to £20,000. In December 2008, the 22 families' last hope of receiving any compensation from the British government was dashed when their application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority was rejected.

The Morecambe Victims Fund was set up in 2006 at the launch of the film Ghosts by Nick Broomfield, to raise money to relieve the burden of debts for the victims' families. Its Trustees are Nick Broomfield, director of Ghosts, and Jez Lewis, producer of Ghosts.

Since then the Fund has sent over donations from the public to help pay for the families' living expenses and their debts. The families' situation was desperate: to work and support their families, 11 out of the 36 children of the 22 families had dropped out of school.