Many more workers have arrived in Britain from Eastern Europe since enlargement of the EU in May than the Government predicted, figures showed yesterday
Published:
11 November 2004 y., Thursday
Many more workers have arrived in Britain from Eastern Europe since enlargement of the EU in May than the Government predicted, figures showed yesterday.
Nearly 91,000 people from the eight former Soviet-bloc states that joined the EU registered to work in the first five months after the expansion. The Tories said many others may have taken on a job without registering.
In the run-up to enlargement, ministers dismissed suggestions of a major influx of migrant workers and regularly cited an official estimate of between 5,000 and 13,000 additional arrivals per year.
The latest figures are seven times that forecast in under half the period. However, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said they showed that the worker registration scheme, set up to dampen controversy over enlargement, was operating effectively.
Normally, EU citizens can travel freely to settle and work in other member states. But the 15 existing members were allowed to operate controls on migration from the new states for up to seven years.
While most governments imposed restrictions, Britain decided not to. The Government said Britain needed more workers but it faced accusations of failing to protect the country's borders. It decided to establish a registration scheme to discourage new arrivals from working in the black market.
The Home Office said 45 per cent of those who had registered were already in the country. Mr Blunkett said the new arrivals, mostly aged between 24 and 34, had helped to fill job vacancies in hospitality and agriculture, and had legalised some who had not been paying tax.
Šaltinis:
news.telegraph.co.uk
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
A baby girl loses her mother at birth. A few years later, she is “sold” into domestic labor by her own father.
more »
Scarce and unevenly distributed rainfall has made water a key economic and social development issue in Morocco.
more »
Rainfall in August and September 2009 confirmed the fears of serious risk of natural disasters in years to come resulting from rising sea levels, greater erosion of coastal zones, destruction of the mangroves, and devastating floods.
more »
Fifteen years after the groundbreaking Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing in 1995, the international community has clear legal norms on the prohibition of discrimination and the active promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment.
more »
Ahead of International Women's Day, the European Commission strengthened and deepened its commitment to equality between women and men with a Women's Charter.
more »
The World Bank Institute has launched an online multiplayer game, EVOKE, designed to empower young people all over the world, but especially in Africa, to start solving urgent social problems like hunger, poverty, disease, conflict, climate change, sustainable energy, lack of health care and education.
more »
One of the crucial questions facing EU asylum policy is the extent to which countries share the demands of asylum seekers.
more »
Youth in three major universities explored what they can do to address climate change, something that experts in a knowledge-sharing forum in Silliman University in Dumaguete City say is already at Filipinos’ doorsteps.
more »
The Parliament needs to connect more with women voters as research shows them to be trapped in a vicious circle, being under-represented in the EP and EU politics in general and, therefore, less interested and less involved than men.
more »
The streets of India became a kaleidoscope of colour, as locals celebrated Holi.
more »