IMMIGRANTS

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The Eastern European Migrants Advice Committee said it has recently seen a change of the flow of people between Poland and Britain. It is estimated about 6,000 people came from Poland to Derby but now it is thought around 500 returned due to low wages and poor living conditions. Experts claim that if the trend continues, the city's construction and hospitality workforces could be left with a shortfall which may hit major projects, such as the £95m Riverlights scheme.

Bish Wojcik, chairman of Derby's Eastern European Migrants Advice Committee, said about 500 Polish people had returned home in the past six months. He said the "migration swing" of Polish people going home had been caused by poor living and working conditions for them in the UK, coupled with an economic boom in Poland. The East Midlands Development Agency said the trend appeared to be repeated across the region and nationally. (Source: BBC News, Mar/08)

The influx of Romanian migrants has led to an explosion in crime in this country. As recent members of the EU, Romanians have had free access to Britain only since January 1, yet in the first six months of this year, police say, they were responsible for 1,080 offences. During the same period in 2006, only 135 such crimes were recorded. Superintendent Bernie Gravett, of the Metropolitan Police, said 'organised' criminal gangs were now operating in the UK, particularly in London.

Police are concerned they are using under-tens, who are too young to be prosecuted, to commit offences such as theft. Officers believe that most of the money generated by the gangs is being sent back to Romania. Under Government restrictions, Romanians need a permit to work in low-skilled jobs in the UK but are free to travel here as they wish. A leaked Home Office memo said an estimated 45,000 potential criminals from Romania and Bulgaria, which also joined in January this year, would travel to Britain following EU expansion. (Source: Daily Mail, Sep/07)

The biggest Polish newspaper in Britain has run a special edition bragging how easy it is to claim benefits. And it describes the simple ways immigrants can grab a cheap home with free furniture and child benefits. The piece in this week’s edition of The Polish Express is even illustrated with a picture of a couple with a pushchair being showered in bank notes. The free paper is read by around 100,000 of the one million Poles currently living in Britain. The front-page article, headlined Benefit Hunters, reads, “The longer we are in Great Britain, the more rights to social security we are given and the better we are at taking advantage of them.”

Other pictures show a woman holding a set of keys and a model of a house, and a child clutching coins. Another photo shows a man entering a Jobcentre with the caption: “Poles are visiting the Jobcentre more and more often, not to find a job, but in order to get benefit.” It says, “You can apply for benefits as soon you take up a job in Great Britain. You can apply for the remaining benefits after working in the UK for a few months or a year. The formalities concerning an application for social security are extremely simple. Do not delay in submitting an application.”

The paper features a case study of “Pete”, a Pole who came to Britain two years ago and settled in a Welsh seaside town. Unlike the 1.6million Brits waiting for homes on council housing lists, he was given a two-bedroom house with a garden straightaway. Pete is quoted as saying, “The house in which I rented a room was falling apart.” When he went to a housing association he was told to register with the Home Office as a person working in the UK to get a National Insurance number. He says, “Never in my life did I expect the whole process to last such a short time. They just gave me the keys and told me to move in. They did not even want any deposit. They asked me if I had furniture. I didn’t, so they sent a lorry with a brand new bed, table, chairs and a cooker. They even brought it all in!”

The paper explains he pays £60 rent a week for a two-bedroom house with a garden. After living there for two years, he will be able to buy the property at a discount on its market value. The paper adds that Peter then helped his sister and a work colleague to get homes in Britain in a similar way. It is estimated around 112,000 migrants who came to the UK to work are currently claiming state benefits, up from 46,620 last year. Applications for National Insurance numbers, which migrants need to get a job, benefits or tax credits, reached a new high of 713,000 last year. Of those, 220,000 were Polish. (Source: The Sun, Sep/07)

Immigrants who can't speak English are being sent to the front of NHS out-patient queues, while locals are left waiting in clinics for hours. Patients who need interpreters are being given priority by hospital trusts because bosses reckon it's cheaper than having costly translators hanging about. It means that at busy times non-English speakers are instantly shunted to the front of the queue but the policy has infuriated patients' groups, who claim it shows ordinary Britons are being discriminated against.

At one outpatient clinic, the London Chest Hospital, at Bethnal Green in the East End, signs clearly warn visitors: "Patients needing trust interpreters will be given priority." Trust spokeswoman Marie Mangan said, "Like most NHS Trusts, when a clinic is over-running every effort is made to ensure that those patients who are using trust interpreters are seen at their allotted appointment time." Recent figures also show that £100million is being spent every year on translators in the public sector. (Source: News of the World, Sep/07)

White people in some of the UK's largest cities are likely to dwindle to a minority due to a boom in ethnic populations. Birmingham, the country's second largest city, will have its one million population made up of largely ethnic minorities in 20 years time, researchers say. And Leicester's half-million population is likely to follow the same path in just four years time, it is believed.

The research has sparked a warning from the country's top race relations expert, Trevor Phillips, that the changes could spark 'mistrust and fracture' if handled irresponsibly. Ludi Simpson, a social statistician at Manchester University, said the Pakistani population in Birmingham was likely to double by 2026. But he said this was due to young age of Pakistanis currently living in the city rather than an influx of immigrants.

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, said there were benefits but also warned of possible social tensions. He said, "Events across Europe have shown how segregation breeds mistrust and fracture. The benefits of plural cities can be great, but we need to look at the future and act responsibly." (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/07)

Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers are set to be granted an 'amnesty' to stay in Britain, on human rights grounds. Councils have been warned they must take over responsibility for the migrants, who will immediately be entitled to benefits and a place at the front of the housing queue. The "amnesty" comes as officials deal with 450,000 "legacy" cases which were lost for years in the shambolic asylum system. Many are migrants whose initial applications failed and who should have been deported years ago. Others never even had their claims considered.

Officials say the first 7,000 cases will be handled by the end of the year and seven out of ten, or 4,900, are expected to be given "indefinite leave to remain". They are all families, many with children born in the UK. Because government bungling has let them stay here for years, the Human Rights Act saves them from being removed as it would infringe their right to a family life. The families are all living in government funded housing for asylum seekers. Once they are allowed to stay, however, they will have to move out. Technically homeless, they will become the top priority for council housing. Normally, only one in ten asylum claims is approved initially. (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/07)

Foreigners who are denied visas to come to Britain are getting UK taxpayers’ money to appeal and the Government says it has no idea how much is being spent on helping their cases. One charity, the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS), handled 163 appeals from people in one small area of Bangladesh in 2003, at a cost of around £60,000. Migrationwatch UK chairman, Sir Andrew Green, said, "It’s very surprising that people who are not British citizens are being given legal aid by the British taxpayer. This needs to be justified, otherwise it should be stopped.”

But the IAS defended the use of public funds. Boss Keith Best stressed his charity tried to limit use of taxpayers’ money by only taking on appeals likely to succeed. He added, “It has always been the case that people who access British law should, if they are financially eligible, be assisted for that.” But he warned that unscrupulous immigration advisers abroad make appeals with little chance of winning. Official figures show 16,255 people appealed against visa refusals in 2002, but only 42% succeeded.

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