Suspected illegal immigrants arrested in two places in Suffolk

Border Force officials have arrested 18 people in two incidents involving suspected illegal immigrants.

Suffolk Police alerted the Home Office after a lorry was stopped in a lay-by on Fordham Road in Newmarket, Suffolk, on Tuesday.

The Home Office confirmed 14 Iranian and Iraqi nationals were on board.

In a separate incident, Border Force officers arrested two Albanian men at Woolverstone Marina near Ipswich when they came ashore in a boat.

Two further Albanian nationals were picked up at Manchester Airport on Wednesday, on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration, a Home Office spokeswoman said.

"We saw the boat just cut across in front of us and I saw three young guys with rucksacks on getting ready to get off," an eyewitness to the landing at Woolverstone said.

"It just looked unusual at the time."

Suffolk Police were called just after 17:35 on Tuesday to reports that a lorry had stopped in a lay-by in Newmarket with suspected illegal immigrants in the back.

"Officers attended and discovered 14 males in the lorry, who were arrested on suspicion of illegal entry to the UK," the force said.

The border agency said three unaccompanied minors were referred to social services.

They were all seen by ambulance staff and three of the individuals were taken to hospital to be checked over, the police said.

All the cases will be progressed in line with the UK immigration rules, the Home Office said.