Children among 11 stowaways in lorries heading to Shropshire
Eleven stowaways including unaccompanied children were discovered on lorries bound for Shropshire last year.
It is believed that most of the immigrants were spotted getting out of vehicles at junction two of the M54 at the link for Stafford and Wolverhampton, which is near the Shropshire, and Telford & Wrekin border.
In the period January 2015 to January 2016 the police received reports of a total of 159 clandestine entry incidents across the force.
Of these 45, or 28 per cent, were within the West Mercia area.
Telford & Wrekin Council said among the 11 to arrive during that period two stowaways were aged under 18.
Council spokesman Russell Griffin said: "Stowaways under the age of 18 are treated like children in care. Stowaways over the age of 18 are processed by the police, who have their own system for dealing with them.
"We have had two persons under the age of 18 enter Telford &Wrekin during the specified period. Both were unaccompanied and both are still with us as children in care. We do work with a range of community partners to help integrate new arrivals.
"Most clandestine entries to the area get dropped off at J2 of the M54 which is not in the Telford & Wrekin Council area."
Maria Jones, of Shropshire Council said: "There are a variety of ways that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arrive in Shropshire. This includes arriving here by travelling the country in a lorry and being discovered by police.
"Additionally, we are working with a number of local authorities and the Home Office through the Strategic Migration Partnership, and as part of this work we have received three additional unaccompanied asylum-seeking children through this process."
West Mercia's Deputy Chief Constable Chris Singer said the arrival of people in goods vehicles was "a continuing issue" for the force.
In February 2016 lorry driver Jim Rushton, of Telford, was left facing a £10,000 fine after an electronic device detected five immigrants on board the HGV he was driving as he was about to board a boat in Calais.
Mr Rushton, of Tweedale, enlisted the help of Telford MP Lucy Allan and the Home Office has now said no further action will be taken against him.
