[ 2014-01-01 ]

Non-EU citizens will be able to work in Britain
Hundreds of thousands of people from poor
countries outside the European Union will be free
to find jobs in Britain as a result of
restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians being
lifted on New Year's Day.

Romania and Bulgaria, whose citizens will now have
the right to work freely in the UK, are offering
passports to people in non-EU countries including
Moldova and Macedonia.

Historic ties also mean that some Serbs,
Ukrainians and Turks are eligible to claim
passports that would allow them to work anywhere
in the EU. The lifting of labour market
restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians has
raised concerns that many will come to the UK to
work. The Government has declined to estimate how
many newcomers will arrive and ministers will be
watching carefully to see if there is an influx.

Anti-immigration groups have predicted that as
many as 50,000 extra migrants a year will come and
some local councils have suggested services will
not be able to cope.

Romanian and Bulgarian politicians have said that
such fears are exaggerated, suggesting that their
countrymen may prefer to travel to other EU
countries or stay at home.

And, despite earlier suggestions that flights to
the UK from the two countries were fully booked,
several airlines on New Year's Eve said they still
had seats available this week.

Romania and Bulgaria have a combined population of
29 million, but their approach to issuing
passports to people in neighbouring states could
allow many more to enter the EU with full
employment rights. Both countries are in
south-east Europe, where national frontiers have
shifted repeatedly over the centuries, leaving
them claiming large diaspora populations beyond
their own borders.

Bojdar Dimitrov, a former Bulgarian minister, told
The Telegraph that his government had fast-tracked
tens of thousands of passports for Macedonians
after Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007.

Mr Dimitrov said: “Bulgarian citizenship is very
popular in Macedonia. When I was in the foreign
ministry we would issue 500 passports a week. All
they would need to prove was that they had
Bulgarian heritage.” Bulgaria asserts a historic
claim to much of the territory of Macedonia, which
emerged from modern Yugoslavia after it broke up
in the early Nineties.



Some estimates suggest that as many as two thirds
of the entire Macedonian population of
2 million could claim Bulgarian citizenship
and thus EU membership.

Official figures show that in 2012, more than
22,000 Macedonians sought Bulgarian passports.

The average Macedonian worker’s gross wage is
about £420 a month, less than a fifth of the
British equivalent. Unemployment stands at about
28 per cent, more than three times the UK rate.

Mr Dimitrov also said more than 20,000 Serbs, who
are not EU members, had Bulgarian passports and
would therefore have full rights to work in the UK
from today.

About 300,000 Turks of Bulgarian descent are also
thought to be able to claim Bulgarian
citizenship.

Mr Dimitrov insisted that there would be few new
Bulgarian immigrants to the UK.

However, he said that Romania had “a more
liberal immigration law even than Bulgaria” and
was granting hundreds of thousands of passports to
people in Moldova, Europe’s poorest country.

Moldova was part of Romania until 1940 when it was
annexed by Russia. The Romanian government has
recently encouraged more Moldovans to seek
passports, which will now entitle them to work in
this country.

Traian Basescu, Romania’s president, has
promised that all Moldovans who consider
themselves Romanian will be able to “move freely
both in Romania and the EU”.

That covers almost all of the country’s
population of 3.6 million.

Mr Dimitrov said: “It is not the Bulgarians you
need to be concerned about in Britain but the
Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians, who will take
advantage of the relaxed laws in Romania to claim
EU passports to travel to your country.” Philip
Hollobone, a Conservative MP, said the prospect of
non-EU residents coming to the UK would add to
public concern about the end of employment
restrictions.

“This could boost significantly the number of
people who come to our shores,” he said.
“People will understand, even if they do not
agree with it, the concept of free movement within
the EU for EU citizens. But they will not
understand how that applies to people who are not
European citizens.”

The Coalition has said it is moving to discourage
new arrivals from Romania and Bulgaria by
restricting access the benefits system.

Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch UK, which
campaigns on immigration rules, said that the
issuing of passports to non-EU residents showed
how powerless the Government was to slow the
arrival of migrants.

“This expands the pool of people who can enter
the UK, as of right now, to work here,” he
said.

“It is right to close off the benefits system as
far as possible but it will not affect those whose
prime purpose is to come here to work.”

Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, but
the number of low-skilled workers who were
permitted to get jobs in Britain was capped at
25,000. That limit expires on January 1.

Source - The Telegraph

... go Back