Ai Qin Lin, star of Nick Broomfield’s harrowing film Ghosts about the deaths of 23 cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay, is to be part of a special panel telling SOLACE conference how it really is for UK migrant workers.

The Birmingham resident who moved to the UK with her son in 2002 has just filming a new movie called Five pound Hollywood about illegal DVD sellers. Ai Qin managed to win a part on Ghosts after Nick Broomfield held open auditions for the dramatised account of the Morecambe Bay tragedy.  All the principal characters are played by Chinese former illegal immigrants.

Ai Qin said that she hopes the discussion at the conference session entitled Welcome to the UK? as well as the two workshops and the exclusive poll of attitudes to migrants carried out by pollster Ben Page will “change things” for such workers.

In the panel which will follow the Question Time style Ai Qin will be joined by:

Richard Kosinski – an economics master degree holder from Poland who struggles to find a job that matches his education
Zahra Charaffdeen – a 6th former from Tyre who fled the war torn Lebanon on a British warship
Michal Kosmider and Krystian Radgowski – who work in Lincolnshire factories and have started up a website for Polish people supported by Lincolnshire County Council

The panel will be chaired by David Clark, Director General of SOLACE.