450,000 new EU migrants working in Britain
Workers from new EU member states are apparently doing the jobs that Britons do not want
Also In The News
|
British number three Greg Rusedski has claimed his first win since May by beating Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (7-9) 6-2 at the Pilot Pen tournament in New England. |  |
Tuesday, 22, Aug 2006 07:42
Almost 450,000 economic migrants are working in the UK following the accession of new member states to the EU in 2004, official figures have revealed.
The Home Office says that more than 447,000 workers from eastern and central European countries have come to Britain since May 2004, although the figures only extend to June of this year.
More than half of these workers are believed to be Polish, while 52,195 workers arrived in total from Poland Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Slovenia in the last quarter alone, far eclipsing the government's initial target of just 150,000.
Further EU enlargement will take place next year, with Bulgaria and Romania among a number of states hoping to gain full or partial accession, and the government has faced calls from the opposition to put restrictions in place to limit the influx of workers.
Britain was one of only three EU countries to not place limits on the number of economic migrants finding work in the aftermath of the 2005 accession.
But Tony McNulty, a minister at the Home Office, today said that new migrants are "benefiting the UK, by filling skills and labour gaps".
However, he admitted that no decision had yet been made as to whether access to Bulgarian and Romanian workers should be put in place.
"The government is committed to ensuring that those migrants entering the UK do so to benefit the UK economy and earlier this year announced its new points based system, which will enable the UK to control migration more effectively," Mr McNulty claimed.
He concluded: "Crucially, it will allow only those people with the skills the UK needs come to this country, while preventing those without these skills applying."
A spokesman for the Immigration Advisory Service charity has echoed Mr McNulty's claims, saying that the UK needs more workers who will do the jobs that British employees are not willing to do.
"You don't find British people queuing up for jobs as meat bone breakers or fish filleters or in agriculture," Colin Yeo told the Today programme.
"Immigrants are coming here to work they are after jobs, they are not here to claim benefits. They are quite often young people from eastern Europe who are looking to work, they are not bringing their families with then so there is no drain on educational resources. They are healthy young people so there is no drain on the NHS," he said.