A BUTCHER expecting a delivery of Chinese chicken got more than he bargained for when two asylum seekers crawled out from underneath the delivery van.

Barry Pocock of Pocock Poultry in Shaw, near Melksham, was expecting his usual meat delivery on Wednesday afternoon, May 15, but got a surprise when the two men appeared.

Mr Pocock said: "The men were Iraqis and as soon as the van stopped and we started unloading they crept out from underneath the van.

"The van had come from Poole which is where they must have got on and they looked incredibly disorientated as they got out from underneath the lorry.

"They didn't speak a word of English and obviously had no idea where they were. I don't think they were expecting to end up in Melksham. The driver looked as surprised as we were."

The men, aged roughly 40 and 26, were seized by the butcher and some of his staff.

Mr Pocock said: "I wasn't scared as there were six of us and they were captured fairly easily.

"As soon as we caught them they sat on the floor with their arms crossed and their heads bowed.

"They were quite well behaved really. We called the police immediately and they came straight away.

The pair were arrested by police and detained by the immigration service.

Mike Goodwin of Bristol Immigration Service said: "We can confirm the two men were Iraqi and we found they were illegal immigrants.

"They have now been released into a refugee care organisation as they have claimed asylum."

The capture of the men follows an announcement made this week of more asylum centres being built in rural areas.

The government has announced that it is seeking planning permission for the first three rural experimental centres.

The government wants to build them on Ministry of Defence Land at Throckmorton, near Pershore in Worcestershire, RAF Newton in Nottingham and at a defence storage depot at Bicester in Oxfordshire.

More centres may be built across the country.

Home office Minister, Lord Rooker said 60 per cent of asylum seekers could be processed through the centres each year.

It currently takes roughly six months to process each asylum seeker's application.