NINE Eritrean children in truck in Surrey

POLICE found nine Eritrean boys in a lorry at a motorway service station in Surrey.

Officers made the discovery as they opened the rear doors to the vehicle, which witnesses said had a foreign plate.

Surrey County Council took the children into care but says it is struggling financially, with more than 130 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASCs) already under its wing. The children, who were with an adult, were found at the M25 Cobham services where the driver stopped and called police. The adult was taken to an immigration facility.

A lorry driver who witnessed the incident on October 13 said: ‘It was a foreign registered lorry and a policeman came along and opened up the back, then within about ten minutes there were three or four more police cars and you could actually see the people in the back. They looked African and quite young.’ A source said they were from Eritrea.

More than 4,200 child asylum seekers were in council care last year – a 54 per cent increase on the previous year. The surge has had a ‘significant’ impact in Surrey, said council leader David Hodge.

He said the care and support needed for USACs, who can suffer from psychological problems, costs more than £50,000 a year per child and that the amount of money received from Whitehall was not enough. He said he has written to immigration minister Brandon Lewis, demanding more funding.

Mr Hodge said: ‘ As you can imagine, finding the right care and support for these vulnerable young people – arriving alone from countries around the globe – is difficult and expensive work...’

The Home Office said that last year it increased funding to local councils by 20 per cent for unaccompanied asylum seeking children under 16.