A lorry driver gassed by refugees desperate to travel to Britain is angry that ministers blame hauliers for immigrants illegally entering the country, writes Victoria Owen.

Steve Sartain was drugged with anaesthetic by asylum-seekers so that he would not hear them climbing into his lorry.

The 41-year-old, who works for Witney-based MacBurnie International Transport, was travelling from Switzerland when he stopped at a service station in Brussels for a regulation sleep. He said: "There was a police station across the road, so I thought I was reasonably safe. But I woke up at 2am with a thumping headache, like I was drunk.

"The Swiss customs security seal had been broken on the trailer and when I climbed up I could see a pair of eyes peering back at me. When I shouted at him to get off the lorry, I was confronted by 11 aggressive-looking men.

"They all had knives, which they use to cut the canvas on the trailer when they want to get off, and I ended up playing fisticuffs." When Mr Sartain called the police, they threatened to arrest him instead of the asylum-seekers.

He said: "They actually threatened to arrest me, even though they said I had been drugged with anaesthetic gas, which someone had put in the heater controls to knock me out."

Finally, the asylum-seekers were persuaded to get off the lorry and Mr Sartain drove off.

He said: "In the end, I just wanted to get out of there. It was confrontational, because I was looking after my lorry and they were desperate people." Like all British lorry drivers, Mr Sartain would have been fined 2,000 if customs officers had found illegal immigrants smuggled on board his truck after the incident, last year.

Since then he has been extra vigilant and is forced to stay awake after a maximum ten-hour drive.

He does not even leave his vehicle alone while he stops for a meal or a shower.

The father of two, of Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, said: "The Government has placed the blame at the bottom of the ladder. I was out of hours, so it was either rest or lose my licence. "We are not carrying the immigrants deliberately. If we had to watch the lorry all the time, we'd never get any sleep. We are in a no-win situation.

"I just want to make an honest living for my wife and kids."

Mr Sartain's comments follow the deaths of 58 immigrants found hidden on a lorry at Dover. The driver was later arrested by police.