24 migrants found in lorries by Kent police are ALREADY on track to win asylum

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At least 24 migrants found in lorry in Kent are already on way to freedom
All 51 stowaways claimed asylum and remaining 27 to be let out last night
Photographs showed migrants crammed like sardines into back of lorries
For the latest on the refugee crisis visit www.dailymail.co.uk/refugeecrisis

By Ian Drury, Home Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:27 EST, 24 March 2016 | Updated: 10:55 EST, 25 March 2016

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At least 24 of the migrants who made it to Britain hiding in the back of two lorries have already been given their freedom.

All 51 stowaways had claimed asylum and the remaining 27 men, women and children who were discovered sneaking into the country were expected to have been let out by last night.

One of the trucks arrived in the UK on Wednesday, hours after Home Secretary Theresa May announced toughened border security following the Brussels suicide bombings in which 31 were killed and 270 wounded.

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At least 24 of the migrants who made it to Britain hiding in the back of two lorries have already been given their freedom, with the remaining 27 expected to have been let out by last night. Pictured: Twenty Iranians and five Iraqis - including five children - were found packed inside the back of the lorry that was pulled over in Kent

Photographs of stowaways crammed like sardines in the back of one lorry were published yesterday.

It was a damning illustration of how Britain has lost control of its borders – and fuelled fears about the rigour of security checks during the current terror alert.

All 51 migrants are understood to have claimed they were fleeing war, persecution and humanitarian disaster in Iran, Iraq and Syria.

By yesterday most had been processed at the Kent Intake Unit, where they were offered food, drink and medical attention, and underwent security screening.

After this was completed, they were officially classed as asylum seekers – then released from the centre to specialist accomodation or to live with family with instructions only to report in intermittently. The whole process took no more than 96 hours.

Most asylum applications are decided within six months. But a damning report recently found that the Home Office had lost track of at least 10,000 asylum seekers and was struggling to find them.

The dossier, slipped out in December, said officials had given up on tracing the refugees because it was a ‘drain on resources’.

Twenty-six migrants were found in the back of Gomez fruit and vegetable lorry in Coldharbour Lane, in Kent

Victory signs: Two of the illegal immigrants found in Canterbury make the gesture. They were among 24 men, one woman and boy found in the back of a Romanian-registered HGV while others were found in another lorry

David Bolt, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, highlighted the fiasco in the immigration removals system, heaping fresh humiliation on the beleaguered Home Office.

He also found that more than 30,000 failed asylum seekers were still in the UK more than two years after all appeals against their removal were exhausted – casting doubt on the authorities’ ability to remove them.

CRIMINALS WE WON'T KICK OUT

Removals of tens of thousands of foreign criminals and immigration offenders are routinely cancelled – meaning they stay longer in Britain.

A damning report revealed yesterday that plans to boot offenders out of the country were scrapped in 40 per cent of cases.

Almost 34,000 airline tickets had to be cancelled in one 18-month period – with lack of staff to escort detainees one reason, said the immigration watchdog.

The loss on unused tickets was £1.4million of taxpayers’ money, said independent chief inspector of borders and immigration David Bolt.

But the cost to the public purse could be even greater because records were not always kept, inspectors found. In some cases, the Government argued, cancellations were out of its control, for example because of late legal challenges, disruptive behaviour of those scheduled for deportation or missing travel documents.

But the report said a lack of security staff to accompany detainees on their journey out of the UK was also a ‘major constraint’.

On average, the private company contracted to provide staff for flights, Tascor, was only able to do so 15 days later than requested, inspectors said.

A Tascor spokesman said: ‘The majority of the cancellations fall outside of Tascor’s control, largely due to legal challenges or lack of emergency travel documents.’

The Home Office said: ‘Work is already under way to address the recommendations relating to ticketing and escorting.’

Yesterday Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘The risk is, of course, are we sure that the people who have come into the country have come because they are seeking asylum or have they got more sinister motives?

‘They are free to move around but, after the terrible attacks in Brussels and France, are we sure we are not letting in potential terrorists? That is really, really concerning.

'With such high security it is appalling that people can just come into the country hiding in lorries, and these are only the ones we have found. How many more are there who have not been caught?’

In the first incident this week, 25 stowaways were found after the lorry driver stopped near the Dartford Tunnel in Kent, on Monday.

When the lorry was opened, the adults and children poured out of the cramped conditions. All of the group were detained and handed over by Kent Police to Border Force officers following the discovery just after 9.15am.

On Wednesday, emergency crews and an air ambulance were called to the headquarters of Gomez, a fruit and veg importer following the discovery of 26 suspected illegal immigrants in the back of a refrigerated lorry.

Six patrol cars, three paramedic crews and the helicopter descended on the distribution centre in Bridge, near Canterbury, shortly before 11.30am.

The migrants – 24 men, one woman and a boy – were found in the back of a Romanian-registered HGV carrying fruit and vegetables. It had been travelling to the UK from Spain, but it is not clear where or when the immigrants – who are of Middle Eastern or North African appearance – got into the truck.

Yesterday, US presidential contender Donald Trump claimed the UK would quit the EU, partly due to migration.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Where someone is found to have no right to remain in the UK, we will take action to remove them.’

More than 800,000 migrants are in Libya hoping to cross to Europe, a French minister declared yesterday. Defence chief Jean-Yves Le Drian said they were waiting in the war-torn Mediterranean country having fled conflict and poverty in the Middle East.