Two illegal immigrants were found in the back of a lorry which called at an industrial estate, the Home Office has revealed.

The two men, both claiming to be from the war-torn Serbian province of Kosovo, were found by a driver unloading cargo for freight company Panalpina, at the Milton Park Industrial Estate, Abingdon, on Monday morning.

Staff called police and the pair were taken to Didcot police station before being given to immigration officers.

Norman Read, manager of Panalpina, based at Cannon Transport, said it was the fifth time illegal immigrants had been found in trucks destined for the company in the past six months.

He said: "Drivers talk about finding people in their trailers quite often, but this was the first time the immigrants have actually made it to our depot. "The driver saw them as soon as he opened the door and shut it straight away. We waited for the police to arrive but they did not put up a struggle. They looked very tired and hungry."

The two men, both in their mid-20s, are being held at the Haslar detention centre, near Gosport, while a decision is made on their application for refugee status.

The lorry in which they were found had come from Stuttgart, via Ostend and Ramsgate. It is thought that the men may have got onto the lorry at one of the two ports.

A Home Office spokesman said: "This happens all the time, unfortunately. Just over half of the people we find this way claim to be from Kosovo but we do not believe that they all come from Kosovo."

Kosovo, an autonomous region of Serbia, in the former Yugoslavia, has been the scene of conflict between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanians demanding independence

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