LONDON, Dec 6: The British government has taken measures to stop Taliban deserters fron entering the United Kingdom by Channel Tunnel trains.

Defence ministry officials, said to be working alongside police at key ports, said on Thursday that they had been interviewing stowaways.

Inspector David Brady, of the British Transport Police, said that since the beginning of October, more than 90 per cent of the 280 stowaways, picked up on this side of the Tunnel, had claimed to be from Afghanistan.

But the Home Office said there was no evidence that the number of asylum-seekers’ applications from Afghanistan had gone up since Sept 11.

Police, monitoring the influx of stowaways, said that the number of Afghans had risen significantly since action started against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. But some Afghan circles in Britain said the rise in the number of Afghan stowaways could be because of the worsening situation in their country following the US airstrikes, which was forcing people to take refuge in other countries.

The Transport Police said:” There is a strong suggestion that many of those coming through are deserters from the Afghan war. Some of those we have picked up have said they’re either from the Taliban or the Afghan army.”