Arrests over UK cockle deaths
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Bags of cockles at Morecambe Bay as an RAF helicopter searches for survivors of the tragedy
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- Seven people have been arrested over the deaths of 19 Chinese workers who drowned while searching for shellfish in a notoriously dangerous English bay.
They are being questioned about their part in organizing the cockle harvesting expedition by low-wage workers who were caught by fast-rising tides in Morecambe Bay, northwest England.
Lancashire police said five people arrested at the weekend were among the reported 16 survivors of the tragedy. The five were being questioned about possible involvement in the deaths, police said. None had been charged.
On Monday, two other suspects -- both men -- gave themselves up to police and were arrested, authorities said.
Police said that their investigation could become a global inquiry.
Detectives seized computers, cell phones and other documents in house raids in the Merseyside area of northwest England on Saturday.
Lancashire police's Deputy Chief Constable Steve Finnigan said the inquiry would be "truly massive."
Ministers said they suspected gangs of "snakeheads" -- Chinese people-traffickers -- were responsible for providing the group at Morecambe Bay.
The deaths have focused attention on gang labor, where so-called gangmasters farm out migrant laborers, often illegally, to do poorly paid jobs in agriculture and unskilled industrial work like construction.
On Saturday Lancashire Assistant Chief Constable Julia Hodson said police and interpreters were interviewing 16 survivors, among them 14 Chinese nationals and two Britons.
She said nine of the survivors requested asylum before the accident and four of them had asked for it since.
Morecambe Bay has notoriously dangerous tides and sands.
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The workers were searching for cockles -- a shellfish delicacy that lives just below the surface of muddy sand -- on Thursday evening when fast-rising, ice-cold waters cut them off from the shore at the notoriously dangerous Morecambe Bay.
Hodson noted that local people and licensed cockle-gatherers had worked at the bay for years with few problems.
"I think it might be something unique about the circumstances of this particular group of people that made them take risks that other people wouldn't take," she said.
She did not elaborate, but Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said earlier the workers were probably victims of organized international people-traffickers who smuggle migrants to exploit them as cheap labor.
Commander Harry Roberts of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, described the deaths as a "tragedy waiting to happen."
Roberts said none of the victims had any safety gear and that many had stripped naked as they tried to swim to safety.
He said gangs of immigrants often traveled to the area to harvest the shellfish, with up to 500 people a day picking cockles.
The Right Rev. Patrick O'Donoghue, Catholic bishop of Lancaster, urged the government to require that all work-gang organizers be licensed and regulated.
"This appalling tragedy raises fundamental questions about whether or not we are providing enough protection to these migrant workers who contribute enormously to our economy and our welfare," he said.
