SIX Iraqi asylum seekers were discovered after a motorist noticed a hand poking out from the back of a truck.

Swindon police were alerted when a driver travelling on the A419 noticed a hand waving from the back of a foreign lorry.

Officers who rushed to the scene found no sign of the lorry but discovered the dishevelled Iraqis sitting on the verge of a lay-by.

They were left near the Dorcan turn-off, one mile north of the Commonhead roundabout.

Swindon police spokeswoman Alvina Kumar said: "It would appear that the lorry stopped at the lay-by, dropped off the stowaways and then drove off again."

She said police received a call from a motorist who was passing the lorry en route to Cirencester and noticed something suspicious at the back of the lorry before realising it was a waving hand.

The men were taken to Swindon central police station and given a meal and a drink before being locked in the cells.

Home Office immigration officers were today continuing to question them.

The Iraqis are latest in a series of discoveries of asylum seekers to be made in the Swindon area stretching back two years.

There is a thriving market in smuggling asylum seekers from Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and the Middle East. Families pay up to £14,000 for the chance to come to this country and many risk suffocation in lorry containers or injury attempting to board the Eurostar train.

n Last week Swindon Council was told it may have to increase the number of asylum seekers by six times.

There are currently 142 asylum seekers receiving financial assistance from the council, the majority of whom have arrived from Kosovo.

But according to council officials there could be many more not registered with social services, making a total of around 500.

The Home Office says Swindon should be able to accommodate 900 asylum seekers under its scheme to disperse such immigrants around the country.

And it has signed a contract with private company Clearsprings to house 250 in Swindon mainly in the private rented sector.