The deaths of 19 Chinese migrants who drowned on a beach while gathering shellfish in northwest England has sparked a massive investigation of the labor agents behind the tragedy.

So far, British police have nabbed five suspects who are thought to be responsible of the deaths.

The suspects, three men and two women, were being questioned about any involvement they may have had in organizing the trip that led to the tragedy, said a spokesman for Lancashire Police.

British detectives promised to do everything possible to find out who sent the 19 low-wage workers - including 17 men and 2 women - to gather cockles in Morecambe Bay. The group was engulfed by the fast-rising tides of the Irish Sea on Thursday. Cockles are a small shellfish delicacy.

Detective Superintendent Mick Gradwell said computers, cellphones and other documents had been seized in raids of houses in the Merseyside area of northwest England on Saturday and reiterated he expected more arrests are expected to be made within days, according to local media.

Identifying the dead was proving hard because of language difficulties and the reticence and apprehension of some of the 16 survivors in aiding detectives.

The 16 survivors include two Europeans and 14 Chinese.

Among the 14 Chinese - two women and 12 men, only one has a Chinese passport, officials with the Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The ministry confirmed the Chinese survivors are from various provinces and autonomous regions of China, including Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Henan, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei, Guangxi and Hainan.

The deaths have fuelled calls for laws to be tightened to stop the exploitation of migrant laborers.

Gradwell told reporters the dead workers probably paid a lot of money to be brought to England, yet had been forced to work in appalling conditions without the proper equipment.

Alex Pinfield, a British Embassy spokesman, told China Daily in Beijing Monday the police investigation is "very big."

"I am part of the police investigation and we are trying to find out who organized the trafficking in Chinese people," Pinfield said.

(China Daily February 10, 2004 )