A stunned member of the public helped police catch seven suspected migrants who had jumped from the back of a lorry in a sleepy village.

The onlooker, who did not wish to be named, said he saw 13 young men with sleeping bags being let out of the back of a Bulgarian HGV in the middle of Mereworth.

He raised the alarm with police and an officer was sent to the scene in Seven Mile Lane before seven of the men were detained and taken to immigration officials in Dover.

The unnamed man had dropped his wife off at work at a nearby business park and watched in disbelief as the men were released into the countryside.

He said: “There was a foreign lorry driver and he was getting them out of the back of his lorry. He wasn’t shouting at them or in a hurry. He wasn’t trying to stop them.

“He wasn’t chasing them and he was just trying to shut his lorry.

“They all had sleeping bags with them. They must have only just got through the port an hour before.”

The witness raised concerns about where the men go after they arrive in the country and suggested the whole incident was related to organised crime.

He added: “It is obviously some sort of crime.

“When I saw them get out of the back of the lorry I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“What happens to these people?

“They were in an area where posh people live and where people are well to do. They looked completely out of place.”

Kent Police confirmed they were called at 9.20am and seven of the men were taken to the Home Office immigration facility in Dover.

The Home Office confirmed immigration officers were contacted by police and 14 people were referred to them.

A spokesman said: "Thirteen men and one woman, aged between 22 and 25 years of age, all presented themselves as Eritrean nationals.

"They were interviewed and must now report regularly to the Home Office while their cases are progressed in line with the UK immigration rules.

"Where someone has no right to remain in the UK, we will take action to remove them."