Police grab immigrants

10:26am Friday 2nd March 2001

POLICE seized five suspected illegal immigrants from the back of a truck on the M40 after the driver phoned saying items were being thrown out of the trailer.

Five men, thought to be Iraqis or Kurds, were arrested at junction 2 of the M40 at 6am on February 16 and later taken to a refugee centre in Southampton.

PC Gerry Byrne, from Amersham Traffic Police, said: "The driver phoned the police and said I think I have got immigrants in my trailer. We asked him not to stop but to meet us at junction 2.

The refugees were then let out and were taken to High Wycombe Police Station where immigration officers were informed.

All six of the refugees, who were men either in their late teens or early 20s, were taken by taxi to a refugee centre in Southampton.

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