Winkle pickers left to brave elements on island

THIRTEEN Eastern European migrant winkle pickers were rescued from an exposed island off Skerries in North County Dublin where they were left abandoned in severe weather conditions.

Yesterday, gardaí and the Department of the Marine had launched separate investigations into the circumstances under which the Eastern Europeans had been left on the island to pick shellfish at the weekend.

The employer who left the group stranded on theisland had serious questions to answer, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said.

“The person responsible for it needs to be seriously questioned as to their motivation and knowledge of labour law, over their sense of responsibility to people in their employment. It has all the tragic connotations of the Morecambe Bay disaster,” he said.

Last year, 21 Chinese cockle pickers died in the freezing waters of Morecambe Bay in Lancashire in Britain after they were trapped by rising tides.

The winkle pickers, men and women who were mostly Latvian, were dropped off by boat sometime on Saturday morning last. Later in the day, one of the workers was told by mobile phone that the boat had broken down and they would have to overnight on the island.

The person who delivered them to the island had not made any contact with the rescue service to make alternative arrangements to take the people off the island.

“They weren’t dressed for the weather,” said a spokesman for Skerries Lifeboat. The pickers were huddled around a driftwood fire when they were discovered.

“If they had stayed on the island they would have been in a bad way,” the spokesman said.

The rescue happened at around 10pm on Saturday night after the coast guard received a call from a member of the public.

SIPTU has called for a thorough investigation into the incident.

SIPTU’s Anton McCabe said it appears that this was another example of migrant workers being used as a cheap commodity.