A pair of stowaways found in a lorry after fleeing Kosova in the former Yugoslavia are set to spend Christmas with relatives in London.

The two illegal immigrants were discovered by a lorry driver in Bradford on Sunday after hiding in a lorry travelling from Italy.

Now both men have been temporarily released by immigration officers pending further investigations.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We believe they have friends and family in the London area and that's where they have gone.

"The young men were in good health.

"They will be interviewed again on January 11 when their situation will be reviewed."

The freezing pair, who were both aged in their mid-twenties, spoke no English.

They were found by lorry driver Ronald Lockyer after he arrived back at the Wibsey depot of W W Potter Ltd.

The men had hidden among boxes of pots and pans.

They had evaded a routine search using sniffer dogs at Dover for contraband.

They had apparently sneaked into the lorry when it was parked overnight in Belgium.

It happened as Mr Lockyer, who was bound for Bury in Lancashire with the load, returned from Italy.

Mr Lockyer, 55, from Wilsden, said he was pleased the authorities had released the men over Christmas.

"I took it for granted they would be held in prison over Christmas," he said.

"This is supposed to be a time of goodwill.

"But I've got mixed feelings.

"If people keep leaving a place, things will never get sorted out."

It is the third time this year that W W Potter has been unwittingly involved in the trade in refugees, which stems mainly from the Balkan countries.

On the last occasion a family slashed the side-screen curtain of a lorry and jumped out when the driver had stopped at a service station on the A1 in Nottinghamshire.

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