They crossed continents, perhaps heard from their bunkers the prattle of different languages. They were signed, sealed and delivered dead.

You do not need much imagination to guess where those 60 Chinese crammed into the back of a lorry, 58 of them dead when they arrived at Dover's Eastern Docks, were headed. There is an enormous shortage of labour in certain areas of the British economy. In some cases, employers are desperate.

Last week, I was speaking to a West African entrepreneur in the office-cleaning business. He recognised me from my work in broadcasting. We were only minutes into our conversation when he asked me if any of my "countrymen" were looking for work. I must have looked puzzled. "Overstayers," he said. "People come for holidays, like the place and do not return. I have work for them."

He told me his story. He came to England as a student, drove minicabs, worked as a cleaner in these huge office blocks. He became a foreman and somehow negotiated with his boss to take over some of the contracts. His bankers were generous, and now he is desperate for labour. He boasts that he employs every nationality on the face of the earth.

I am certain that, had the 60 Chinese arrived safely, they would all, every one of them, have been employed by the weekend. For every one discovered dead, hundreds of others find their way to London's West End, and other urban areas, alive.

This is big business, the kind of entrepreneurial activity that William Hague should really applaud. There will be no end to it. On the net, there are several sites geared to enticing labour to Britain. There is no talk of Britain being a soft touch; in fact, the potential migrant is careful not to be seen as a burden. The word goes around in the home country; people know exactly where the jobs are, and they are often hired within hours of landing.

It is highly likely that the 60 from China's Fujian province were already spoken for. Whether their employment agency is a criminal gang or not, the absolute law of supply and demand will create intermediaries who will be ready to satisfy the market.

To introduce morality or nationalism into the debate is not to come close to the merciless reality. Where would Chinese restaurants find labour? Their children attend British schools and do not want to work as kitchen hands or waiters. They want to make their way in the wider world, start careers similar to those of their classmates. So new hands have to be brought in. Unless arrangements are formalised for the introduction of foreign labour, the current mess will continue.

A few weeks ago, I wrote in this column that economic migrants have replaced students, travellers and the rest in the job of picking hops. I received a letter from a reader confirming this. Her son, as far back as the late 1950s, organised a strike of foreigners who were wickedly exploited on these farms. Such exploitation continues even in these enlightened times.

There is another side to it. Asylum-seekers are now being planted in communities throughout Britain. The Daily Mail systematically follows the routes into small villages, whipping up anti-asylum feeling.

There is no political reply from the government, no programme for explaining to villagers what the difficulties are, no programme for introducing the new residents into the communities. It is left to the Daily Mail to reproduce fears and exploit emotions. It is precisely what took place in Notting Hill and Brixton in the late 1950s and 1960s, and it led to race riots.

The British are remarkably tolerant but, like everyone else, they can easily descend into barbarism when their only sources of information are the Daily Mail and the National Front.

Not to mention Hague, the plague.

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