FOUR refugees from war-torn Kosovo were found at a Winsford warehouse last week - sitting in the back of a delivery lorry which had come all the way from Italy.

Shocked workers alerted police to the scene at Iveco, on the Road One Industrial Estate, after removing the covers of the truck.

The men, two 17-year-olds and two in their 20s, were found on a 40-foot wagon which was delivering commercial goods to the site last Tuesday afternoon.

The police passed them over to the Manchester Immigration Detention Facility at Manchester Airport and, after being interviewed, two were detained and two were granted temporary release.

Staff at the site told how they took sympathy with the eastern European asylum seekers after discovering them in the truck.

One warehouse employee said: "When the driver pulled down the covers on the lorry they were sat there on top of the cargo.

"We were all really surprised because they didn't run, they just got down and stood there talking until the police came."

Another worker added: "It was a shame for them really. When they got here they asked if they were in London.

"Two of them were wearing Manchester United tops, so I suppose they thought they wouldn't stand out so much when they got to Britain.

"We gave them a cup of coffee and 10 minutes later the police arrived and took them away."

This was the third incident involving illegal immigrants in Cheshire in the past couple of months.

In Britain, about 3,000 illegal immigrants have been caught, stowed away in international lorries, by immigration authorities this year alone and about half of them have come from the war-torn former Yugoslavia, of which Kosovo is a part.

A Cheshire police spokesman said: "The problem with international lorries is that they only have to stop for a minute and someone can sneak on board.

"Unfortunately, with situations in certain countries in Europe being how they are, it is not as uncommon as you might think."

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