Nine illegal immigrants disappeared after they were put on a train by police and told to head to a detention centre 80 miles away.
Police gave the men give train tickets to make their way from Cambridge to Croydon immigration centre.
Police said they made the decision on the advice of immigration officials.
The Border and Immigration Service denied it had given that advice. It said it had asked for the nine men to be held in custody to be interviewed.
DI Alan Savile, of Cambridgeshire Police, said: "In matters of this nature the police are led by the UK Immigration Service which in turns follows the Home Office instruction.
"In this instance the Immigration Service in St Ives was consulted and the decision taken to direct individuals to the immigration facility at Croydon which is accepted practice."
Fast-track procedure
An immigration service spokesman said Cambridgeshire Police contacted the immigration enforcement office at St Ives on 5 February about nine Afghans found in a lorry at a depot in Fordham.
"The police were advised to arrest them and hold them in custody so immigration officers could interview them and then take them into detention.
"The police advised they could not take the nine subjects into custody.
"It is not true that the Border and Immigration Agency advised the police to tell illegal immigrants in Cambridgeshire to make their own way to Croydon.
"We respond as a matter of priority whenever notified by the police that they have arrested illegal immigrants found in lorries.
"A new fast-track procedure was recently introduced where all adult males arrested by the police at 'lorry drops' are taken into immigration detention where they are fingerprinted and then dealt with according to BIA procedures and guidelines."
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