UK police raid homes in search of drowned cockle pickers' agents

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, February 08, 2004

UK police raid homes in search of drowned cockle pickers' agents

British police raided on Feb. 7 a number of homes across northwest England in search for the labor agents of 19 people who drowned picking cockles in Morecambe bay.

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British police raided on Feb. 7 a number of homes across northwest England in search for the labor agents of 19 people who drowned picking cockles in Morecambe bay.

Only 16, two white Europeans and 14 Chinese, survived after thegroup were caught in fast-rising tides in the dangerous bay on Thursday night.

It is believed the group were low-waged immigrant workers controlled by unscrupulous gang masters.

It is not known if anyone was arrested but Det Supt Mick Gradwell at Lancashire Police said he was chasing good leads in Merseyside, northwestern England, where officers believe the cockle pickers came from.

"It does appear that gangmasters were involved in arranging this cockle picking," he said.

"We expect to make arrest within days rather than months," he said, adding that a number of gangmasters' names had been provided to police and were being checked.

A police statement said: "Lancashire police officers working with their colleagues from Merseyside have made a number of visits to addresses in and around Liverpool."

"The purpose of this is really to follow up on intelligence they have gleaned during the course of the operation," it said.

Police and immigration officers have begun interviewing some ofthe survivors, who are under social services care, through interpreters.

They are also trying to identify the bodies and contact next ofkin under the help of the Chinese Embassy, the Coroner's Office and Lancashire County Council.

A Lancashire Police spokesman confirmed the police have given up hope of finding any more survivors and the searches continuing at sea were now more about "recovery than survivors."

The British government has reacted by considering the tougher licensing of migrant recruitment by gang masters who farm out migrant laborers, often illegally, to do poorly paid jobs mainly in agriculture and construction.

Source: Xinhua

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