Human remains have been found near the site off the northwest English coast where 21 Chinese shellfish pickers drowned and two others were reported missing in February 2004, police said Wednesday.
Children playing on the waterfront at Arnside, which is near the site of the disaster at Morecambe Bay, found the bones on Sunday, police said. They were passed to pathologists for tests.
"Human remains were found by a family out walking near the Coastguard station at Arnside," a Cumbria Police spokesman said. "We are still trying to identify the human remains. They are basically bones."
The two whose bodies were never found were cobbler Dong Xinwu, 38, from Fuzhov City, and Liu Qinying, 37, a mother of one child from Putian City.
Chinese gangmaster Lin Liangren was sentenced to 14 years in jail in March for his negligence in sending the workers out in the bay with one of the notorious fast-rising tides about to rush in.
His victims, all illegal immigrants from China's eastern Fujian and Liaoning provinces, were hopelessly stranded in treacherous conditions.
The tragedy cast a spotlight on the plight of immigrant manual workers, many of whom are in Britain illegally, their exploitation on low wages by gangmasters, and how little the government knows about the whole shady business.
