POLICE and immigration officers arrested 16 Eastern Europeans working illegally in the area after an early morning raid on a barn near Tebay.

Eleven men and five women from Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and the Ukraine now face deportation for working illegally at the Parmalat dairy plant in Kendal. Two Russian men were also arrested in Kendal.

The Home Office said two of the workers were illegal immigrants, four were in the UK legally but not entitled to work and the remaining 12 were "over-stayers" whose visas had lapsed.

The authorities have not released the exact location property where the illegal workers were living, but said it was "in the Tebay area". Conditions there are believed to have been basic and crowded.

All the workers are believed to have worked 12-hour night shifts at the Parmalat plant for around £5.60 per hour. Many are thought to have been sending money to families in their home countries as well as paying a commission to the agency which hired them for Parmalat and paying for travel from Tebay to Kendal.

The arrests appear to have taken most of the area's residents by surprise. Mark Saunders, an Eden District Councillor who runs the Village Stores and Post Office in nearby Orton, said he had heard no talk at all about Eastern European workers living in the area.

One anonymous South Lakeland resident who befriended some of the illegal workers, described them as: "polite and respectful they were really nice guys," but expressed fears that they had been "exploited" during their time in England.

Parmalat spokesman Laura Gilbert confirmed the workers had been employed at the plant said the company had employed the staff through an agency, but that: "There has been a question about the validity of paperwork supplied to Parmalat."

Home Office spokesman Matt Brooks said all companies have a responsibility to ensure their staff had a legal right to work in the country. But added that officers had worked in conjunction with Parmalat and were "appreciative" of their help.

He also said the arrests had been a routine, intelligence-led operation and the timing was not related to the tragedy of the Chinese cocklers who drowned while working on the sands in Morecambe Bay.