Immigrants arrested trying to leave UK

So when one Polish trucker heard suspicious scuffling sounds coming from the back of his vehicle he immediately stopped and alerted officials.

Police found one Afghan trapped in the cargo of timber and two more cowering in a ditch nearby. Now the trio are waiting to be flown back to Afghanistan at taxpayers’ expense.

A familiar scenario – but this time with quite a difference. For the lorry was heading through Kent to Dover. While hundreds of migrants in Calais try to cross the Channel to Britain every day, this particular group seemed determined to get out instead.

Yesterday the Home Office confirmed that the three Afghans would be repatriated, with taxpayers picking up the bill, if they were found to have been in the country illegally.

Critics agreed that the situation was bizarre even by the strange standards of a Home Office famously not fit for purpose. Sir Andrew Green, of Migration Watch UK, said: “It seems crazy to stop illegal immigrants leaving the country of their own free will.

“Indeed, we would like to see an amnesty on departures so that any illegal immigrant could leave, providing they were not wanted by police, as soon as they wish. We certainly do not need to pay for their removal.”

The Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, said: “The Home Office is in a complete shambles. Why are we stopping them from leaving? If they want to go, let them.” Last night immigration officials were investigating a theory that the Afghans were a people-smuggling gang who had delivered their human cargo personally.

Dover MP Gwyn Prosser told the Daily Express: “I have heard of at least one gang that escorts illegal immigrants across the Channel, for which they pay a premium price.

“Then the gang have to get back to France without any paperwork, so the only way is via the back of another lorry. This is the only explanation I can think of for this case.”