A foreign corner of an English field

If there is anywhere in the UK where immigration is playing a major part in the economy, then it's in agriculture - and there are many businesses that say they can't survive without their foreign workers. There is a corner of an English field that is today forever foreign.

Many farmers increasingly stress how much they rely on migrant labour. So today if you buy a celery from Tesco, Sainsbury or Marks and Spencer, there's a chance it may have

been picked, chopped, washed and packed by Mariusz, Dorota and Darius - just three of the 1,600 eastern European workers who have spent this year at G's Marketing, a major enterprise with farms in the UK and Europe. Although it has a turnover of some J135m, it's the kind of company consumers know little about. It's a hugely competitive business and it relies on constant innovations in picking, packing and delivery. All of this requires a reliable and motivated workforce: long gone are the days when farmers relied on seasonal labour drawn from local people and travelling folk.

Sharon Gudgeon runs G's international recruitment programme and said they first looked abroad in the early 1990s when part-time local workers simply disappeared. "Someone in Britain is not going to give up a full-time job for a seasonal job," she says. G's' own recruitment starts six months before crop-picking. The system has changed considerably this year as some of the countries used for recruitment are now members of the European Union, meaning workers are essentially free to come and work for

G's without needing government permission. For non-EU countries, the company still needs to negotiate with the Home Office over its needs and then contact partner universities, the sources of its workforce. Source countries currently include Poland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova. "They are under no illusions. We don't give any false promises and we try to emphasise that while it's hard work, it will be a positive experience," says Sharon Gudgeon.

The workers sleep in bunk dorms but also have entertainment facilities, free English lessons twice a week and barbecues and a sports pitch for summer nights. On days off, there are coaches to tourist attractions such as Oxford or Alton Towers.

G U A R D I A N , 12 . 11 . 04 .

Uk repatriates bodies of Chinese

Britain has flown back home the bodies of 21 Chinese migrant workers who drowned earlier this year after being stranded by tides off northwest England while collecting shellfish.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said that the victims' bodies had been repatriated to their families on Wednesday. "Our thoughts are with the families on this sad occasion," she said in a statement, declining to give more details. The government had previously announced that it would arrange and pay for the return of the bodies of the migrants, most of whom came from poor, rural backgrounds in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian. Twenty-three Chinese workers are thought to have drowned when tides stranded dozens of people collecting cockles on the famously treacherous sands of Morecambe Bay in February. Two of the bodies have never been found.

A further 11 cocklers who survived the tragedy are being allowed to stay in Britain for an initial period of a year so they can help police prosecute those accused over the deaths. Five people, including three Chinese, have been charged in relation to the incident.

Police are investigating whether those who died were used as cheap labour by "gangmasters" who organise groups of itinerant workers for jobs such as crop picking and shellfish collecting. It is thought that at least 3,000 gangmasters — employing up to 100,000 workers, many of them illegal immigrants — operate in Britain in areas such as agriculture, shellfish collection, food processing and packaging. Police found that many of the Morecambe Bay victims had been employed illegally, earning minimal wages and being housed in appalling conditions.Their deaths prompted the British parliament to adopt legislation aimed at curbing the activities of gangmasters.

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BBC N E W S , 24 . 11 . 04 .