Two English businessmen have been charged in connection with the Morecambe Bay cockle picking tragedy that claimed more than 20 Chinese lives in February, British police said on Thursday.

David Eden, 61, and his 33-year-old son of the same name, who run the Liverpool Bay Fishing Co, were the fourth and fifth people and so far the only non-Chinese to be charged over the incident.

The pair, who buy shellfish from cockle pickers who work in the treacherous bay, were charged with conspiracy to commit facilitation -- an offence relating to the organization of illegal immigrants.

They will reappear in the Lancaster Magistrate's Court on Wednesday, AFP reported.

The charges were brought a week after three people from Liverpool appeared in court.

The two men, from Wirral in northeastern England, were arrested in February.

All together, seven people were arrested in February in connection with the deaths and released on bail.

The latest charges come a week after three Chinese people -- two men in the 20s and a 19-year-old woman -- appeared in court charged with manslaughter and other offences.

According to the BBC, 23 Chinese migrant workers -- two whose bodies have not yet been found -- are believed to have perished in the shallows of the bay in the northwest of England on February 5.

(China Daily July 10, 2004)