An illegal immigrant who was arrested as he tried to leave the Port of Felixstowe after hiding under a lorry trailer had entered the UK illegally on two earlier occasions, a court has heard.

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday ( May 11) was Lajbur Ahmadzai, 37, of Berwick Road, London, who admitted attempting to enter the UK without valid entry clearance in November last year.

Ipswich Star: Lajbur Ahmadzai was arrested as he tried to leave the Port of Felixstowe.Lajbur Ahmadzai was arrested as he tried to leave the Port of Felixstowe. (Image: Suffolk Constabulary)

Jailing him for 12 months, Judge Emma Peters said he had been waiting for an asylum interview with the Home Office and had illegally entered the UK from France in November to have a meeting in connection with that interview.

The court heard that Ahmadzai had previously illegally entered the UK in 2014 and had been forcibly removed to Italy.

He returned to the UK illegally in 2017 and in 2019 he’d asked for accommodation which resulted in the Home Office asylum meeting being arranged last year.

The court heard that Ahmadzai had fled from Afghanistan because of the Taliban and had left his four children behind in the care of his parents.