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Three Eritrean migrants have been detained by police after they were pulled out of the back of a lorry in Cambridgeshire.
The men were discovered hiding in the back of a truck which arrived in Britain from the Czech Republic after the driver became suspicious and called the police.
Dramatic images showed the men being pulled from the truck near Peterborough on Saturday afternoon before being bundled into waiting police vehicles.It is unclear whether the men were arrested, if they have been charged with a crime, or whether they will be allowed to remain in the UK.
Most Eritreans arrive in Europe via Libya after an old route via Egypt and Israel was blocked by border fences and guards with order to shoot on sight, according to Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre.
The majority of Eritreans who arrive in Europe end up applying for asylum, having fled rampant political repression, forced labour, and indefinite military conscription that has earned the country the moniker of 'Africa's North Korea'.
In 2015 Eritreans made up the largest single group to apply for asylum in the UK, with 3,695 applications lodged.
Around a third of those applications were granted, according to data published by The Guardian.
However, the proportion being granted asylum is now likely to far higher after a ruling last year which made it more difficult to deport Eritrean asylum seekers.
Previous Home Office guidance deemed that it was safe to return asylum seekers who fled Eritrea illegally.
But the department was forced to change that guidance in October last year after a legal challenge brought on behalf of three asylum seekers found those being returned were at significant risk of harm or persecution.
In the first quarter of 2016, as the Home Office guidance on Eritrean refugees came under scrutiny, around 86 per cent of application were granted.
Last month, a video appeared online showing six illegal immigrants in the back of a British driver's lorry.
It is thought they boarded in Caen, France as he made his way back from Spain.