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Turners (Soham) has criticised the police and immigration officials for not having adequate procedures to deal with stowaways, and claims it has dealt with 50 illegal immigrants at its premises. The alarming number of desperate people hiding in trucks in order to enter Britain was laid bare last week after it emerged that the Newmarket, Suffolk haulage and distribution firm recently found nine immigrants in one vehicle. Police  were called, but acting under instructions from the Immigration Service officers directed the stowaways to an immigration facility in Croydon, almost 90 miles away. They have since disappeared.

Turners' company secretary David Munns says the stowaways were hiding in two pallet carriers on a Spanish truck delivering fruit to its haulage yard. It was nearly three hours before the police arrived and when they did they admitted there was nothing they could do. Munns says: "Our security man says there have been around 50 [stowaways] at Turners over the last few years. They're coming in in twos, threes and fours in different trucks. In the past the police have turned up and taken them away, but this time they couldn't accommodate them."

Munns adds: "When they come here in a foreign vehicle, nobody questions the driver. It's going to be a problem for all hauliers. If there's no instant response from the police, how do you detain people? We are fortunate we have a security  man who can handle situations like that. For other companies it might be more difficult." Local Conservative MP Jim Paice says he has now raised the matter with Immigration Minister Liam Byrne. He says: "If this is the action that the Immigration Service encourages, it is hardly surprising that we have vast numbers of illegal immigrants in this country.

"Surely when they are apprehended, as in this case, they ought not then to be released into the community without any trace of where they may go." A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police says: "In matters of this nature, the police are led by the UK Immigration Service, which in turn follows Home Office instruction. In this incident the Immigration Service at St Ives was consulted and a decision was made to direct the individuals to the immigration facility at Croydon, which is an accepted practice."