An Afghan migrant was killed as he tried to cross the M20, shortly after gaining illegal entry to the UK in the back of a lorry, an inquest heard.

Mohammed Akram, 22, had been with a group of around five other men who were making their way across the motorway near junction 8 for Leeds when he was struck by a van.

It happened on the London-bound carriageway just before 7am on October 14 last year, leaving the road shut for seven hours.

At an inquest into his death at The Archbishop’s Palace, evidence was heard from the driver of the white VW Caddy, Phillip Ritchie, who had been travelling to work in Ashford when the accident happened.

In a statement he described seeing four or five people.

He said: “It was dark at the time. Suddenly I could see four maybe five people in the road all following each other, sort of spaced out. I have done a double take. It looked so unreal, they looked like ghosts.”

The inquest heard Mr Ritchie had gone to brake, but was too late. He said he didn’t swerve for fear of hitting the other migrants or crashing into the central reservation.

Mr Akram’s body was then run over by another car. He died at the scene from multiple injuries.

Det Con David Holmes of Kent Police’s Serious Collision Unit said Europol had helped the force to piece together Mr Akram’s movements.

He had left Afghanistan 18 months earlier with a friend and had paid a people smuggler for travel into Iran. He then went through Turkey, Greece and Germany, where he registered as a refugee.

His ID card was found near the body, but in order to identify Mr Akram, his father in Afghanistan had to make a dangerous nine hour journey to Kabul to give a DNA sample.

Assistant coroner Allison Summers concluded Mr Akram’s death was the result of an accident, adding: “Whatever this man’s reason for coming to the UK this was a tragic loss of a young life and I don’t underestimate the effects of this on the drivers involved.”