Several asylum seekers were caught near the prison

Twenty men escaped from Lindholme Removal Centre, at Lindholme prison near Thorne, when they scaled a fence at on Sunday night.

But 10 of them - four Sri Lankans and men from Pakistan, Cameroon, Turkey, Sierra Leone, India and Macedonia - were recaptured within a six mile radius of the isolated centre.

Police said all 10 had been found thanks to the public who gave them information.

Intelligence

The Prison Service has launched an investigation into the escape.

More than 40 police officers, including dog teams, and a helicopter have been involved in attempts to recapture the remaining escapees, who police say pose no threat.

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said: "The advice to members of the public who encounter the asylum seekers is not to approach them and not to stop your car if flagged down by them, even though they are not considered dangerous.

"Officers will be liaising with other forces and agencies and gathering intelligence on the missing men."

Superintendent Dave Featherstone said he was confident all the men would be recaptured as they would be easy to spot in the countryside.

He said: "Looking at where they've been found, they aren't getting very far and they will be in an area of 5-6 miles away.

"I would hope that if we get the continued co-operation of the public we will get all 20 back within the next couple of days."

The missing men are from Iraq, Kosovo, Ukraine, Macedonia and India.

They were all understood to be waiting for their asylum applications to be processed.

Strip searches

Neither the police nor the Home Office would comment on reports circulating locally that the 20 escapees had scaled the 20ft high perimeter fence using a bed.

Lindholme Removal Centre has 112 beds and was opened last year.

Lindholme 'not safe'

Most of those held there have had their asylum applications refused but a small number are people still going through the application procedure but considered likely to abscond.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers recently criticised Lindholme in a report into asylum detention, saying it needed "fundamental and far-reaching changes".

Ms Owers said detainees were not shown enough respect and were subjected to "unacceptable and unnecessary" random strip searches after visits.

She said asylum seekers interviewed by inspectors neither felt safe nor knew what was happening to them.

Asylum seekers are held at Lindholme under rules which allow immigration authorities to detain them at any stage of their process.

They can be detained without having been charged or convicted of a criminal offence.

Campaigners say this criminalises vulnerable people and prevents them from having a fair hearing.