Police have been found 15 illegal immigrants stowed away in the back of a lorry at a service station in Kent.
The group of foreign nationals were found at Farthing Corner Services on the M2 near Gillingham.
Officers were called to the scene after 5pm yesterday after the group were seen getting out of the foreign-registered articulated truck.
The group of foreign nationals were found at Farthing Corner Services on the M2 near Gillingham, Kent
Hiding: Around fifteen men were found cramped on top of boxes of Bisquick in the foreign-registered lorry
Surprise: Officers opened up the lorry to find a number of people hiding yesterday in Kent
Border Force officers were alerted and the group were handed into the care of the immigration officials.
One motorist who was at the services and saw what happened but didn’t want to be named, said: ‘I was there at about 5pm there were three cop cars surrounding a foreign lorry where, migrants were packed in the back like sardines.’
Police confirmed they were called out at 4.25pm and found the 15 people had subsequently exited the vehicle.
Some were pictured emerging from the top of the lorry’s consignment of dog biscuits in a small gap where they had been hiding.
Police confirmed they were called out at 4.25pm and found the 15 people had subsequently exited the vehicle.
Questions: Police officers at the scene at Farthing Corner Services taking details from those travelling in the articulated truck
A Kent Police spokesman said: ‘Kent Police was called to a report that people were believed to be in the back of a lorry at a service station on the London-bound M2, near junction 5, at 4.25pm on Wednesday 25 October 2017.
‘Officers attended the location and 15 people subsequently exited the vehicle.
‘The people have since been placed in the care of Home Office immigration officials.’
The group are thought to be from Africa but their nationalities are not known at this stage.
The discovery comes as hundreds of migrants are believed to be in Calais and the surrounding area a year after the notorious Jungle camp was removed by French officials.
Border Force officers were alerted and the group were handed into the care of the immigration officials
The makeshift came was razed to the ground as thousands of migrants arrived at Calais in a bid to get to the UK.
They were dispersed across France but now it is thought between 700 and 800 refugees and other migrants are gathered in France’s northern port city, according to charity workers there.
Desperate migrants trying to get to the UK have been blocking roads into the port to try and slow trucks down in a bid to clamber on board.
In June a Polish van driver was killed near Calais after crashing into trucks blocked by a makeshift barricade set up by migrants.
The van hit stationary trucks that had been forced to stop at a roadblock of trees and rubble and burst into flames, killing the driver instantly.
In September, an Ethiopian migrant sneaked into a British holidaymaker’s car in the tunnel.
A British businessman who travelled to France to pay his respects to a fallen World War One soldier told how he got home from his trip and found an illegal immigrant hiding in the boot of his car.
Construction company boss Paul Edmunds, 59, had made the journey to the Continent with wife Jan, 57, and their friends in September.
But when the group returned to their home town, Caersws in mid Wales, as they were unpacking the boot of Mr Edmunds’ Nissan pick-up, they spotted a man’s trainers poking out from among their bags.
The stowaway turned out to be a 22-year-old Ethiopian who had climbed in to the back of the vehicle, probably while Mr Edmunds took a quick nap at Calais after passing through customs prior to the journey home.