Four children among asylum seekers found in refrigerated lorry in Midlands

Ten asylum seekers, including four children, have received medical treatment after being found in the back of a refrigerator lorry in the Midlands.

Ambulance crews were called to a retail park off the M6 after the group of six men and four boys were discovered in Wednesbury, West Midlands, at around 5:30pm on Thursday.

Immigration officials are now processing the men who are understood to be from Iraq, Iran, Vietnam and Lebanon.

They have been referred to the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement directorate to be interviewed.

The children have been placed in the care of children’s services for further assessment.

Two Spanish men, aged 50 and 60, were arrested by police on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration.

Emergency services were called to Axletree Way at 5:31pm to reports of 10 people in the back of a refrigerated lorry, a West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said.

He said the men were thought to be between 16 and 26 years old.

"They were all assessed and treated for the effects of cold, with a nearby coffee shop providing hot drinks,” he said.

"Nine of the patients were discharged at the scene, while one was taken to Walsall Manor Hospital after fainting."

It comes after an asylum seeker travelled from Calais to within eight miles of the British coastline in an inflatable kayak.

The Iranian man, aged around 30, was spotted by a cross-channel ferry earlier this month, before a UK border force vessel was dispatched to pick him up.

The man, believed to have been living in the Jungle camp before it was closed in October, was reportedly detained at an immigration centre in Croydon, London, and assessed under an immigration procedure known as 'Detained Fast Track' (DFT).

Additional reporting by Press Association