Five men who were arrested in a crackdown on illegal immigration had been living and working in a car scrapyard for just £2.50 an hour, immigration officials have said.

The migrants were found sleeping in mobile homes and shipping containers at the site in Oldham, Greater Manchester, during a raid.

The men, aged between 34 and 50, were expected to be deported to their home countries of Lithuania and Malaysia.

They were found during a raid at a car salvage yard in the Watersheddings area of the town on Thursday morning.

It followed intelligence that foreign nationals had been working there for small amounts, living on site in mobile homes and cooking in converted shipping containers.

Immigration officials said they found bedding, rucksacks and personal belongings.

It was thought some of the migrants had overstayed their tourist visas, while others did not have the correct documents and were not entitled to work in the UK.

Charles Devereux, an inspector for immigration enforcement in north-west England, said: “We’ve encountered several foreign nationals in this raid. The converted cabins and shipping containers are very poor living conditions.

“It shows what can happen to illegal workers, how open they are to exploitation.

“Employers will expect the migrants to work unusually long hours and pay them below the minimum wage.”

Mr Devereux added: “The Home Office continues to take illegal working as an absolute priority.

“It’s so vital to prevent the scenes we’ve seen in terms of small boats and people taking terrible risks to come here to the UK – in many cases on a lie that’s sold by trafficking gangs and criminal organisations.”

Three of the foreign nationals were detained at one of the UK’s immigration detention centres, pending their removal from the UK.

Two others have been bailed and are expected to leave the country voluntarily.

The firm involved could face a fine of up to £100,000.