British police investigating the deaths of 19 Chinese migrants who drowned on a beach gathering shellfish said this morning they have arrested five people on suspicion of manslaughter.
The five, three men and two women, were arrested yesterday, three days after the low-wage workers were caught by fast-rising tides as they collected cockles in Morecambe Bay, northwest England.
"They [those arrrested] are being questioned about involvement they may have had in organising the cockling trip that led to the tragedy," a Lancashire police spokesman said. Police said yesterday that their investigation could become a global inquiry.
Detectives seized computers, cell phones and other documents in house raids in the Merseyside area on Saturday.
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 labour, where so-called gangmasters farm out migrant labourers, often illegally, to do poorly paid jobs in agriculture and unskilled industrial work.
Politicians led calls for laws to be tightened to regulate gangmasters but ministers said they are already covered by existing labour laws.