BRITAIN: Another group of up to 40 cockle-pickers evaded disaster yesterday after a lifeboat rescue mission was launched just yards from the scene of last week's Morecambe Bay tragedy in which 19 Chinese workers died.
The alert was sounded and the lifeboat scrambled barely an hour after Buddhist monks led a memorial and prayer service on Morecambe seafront for those who drowned last Thursday.
The latest drama coincided with a demand that the government close the cockle beds in Morecambe Bay from a Labour MP who alerted the Home Office to the plight of illegal immigrant workers risking their lives by working there last year.
The government, meanwhile, continued to feel the political heat as local MP Ms Geraldine Smith demanded a Health and Safety Executive review of the situation at Morecambe Bay.
She said the pressure needed to continue and warned: "I think before this appalling tragedy the government were looking at a voluntary licensing scheme. I don't think that will work. You need mandatory enforcement."
Ms Smith had earlier embarrassed the Home Office when she revealed she had written alerting ministers to the dangers facing cockle-pickers under the control of gangmasters in June last year.
Describing the plight of migrant workers and demanding intervention by the immigration service, Ms Smith wrote: "Unable to speak English and under the control of a gang master, these people are being paid one-fifth of the standard rate for their work.
"They were also being transported 20 to a boat in waters renowned for their currents and quicksands, where an experienced local fisherman would not consider carrying more than six."
A Home Office Minister, Ms Fiona MacTaggart, replied identifying "resource issues" and suggesting the involvement of the immigration service as a back-up to the police would serve little purpose.
Yesterday's drama came after a red tractor bearing men and equipment appeared to be stuck in an area known as Priest Skears. A local resident, Mr Keith Buddon, said: "They seemed to have no drive and were in difficulty."