China will send a five-member police team to help British police confirm the identity of the victims in the Morecambe Bay drowning incident, the Ministry of Public Security announced Thursday.  

On February 10, British police informed the Chinese side via Interpol that over 30 Asian cockle pickers had been trapped by rising tides in the bay on February 5, and 20 of them had been found dead. British police thought all of these victims were Chinese, and asked Chinese police to help in the probe.

Among the victims and survivors, only one kept her legal identity document, while all the others have neither legal documents nor do they speak English, according to British police.

Illegal migration is an international issue that has plagued many countries including China, and the Chinese government and police have always been adhered to the stance of firmly cracking down on illegal migration, the Chinese ministry said.

The ministry stressed that all those who have been identified as illegal migrants from the Chinese mainland will certainly be repatriated, and China opposes any double-standard on the issue.

The two sides successfully cooperated over the tragedy in June 2000 when 58 illegal Chinese migrants were found dead in a container lorry at the British port of Dover.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2004)