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thomas davison

Millions of poverty-striken Bulgarians want to move to Britain
FOUR million Bulgarians want to move to Britain when migration rules are relaxed next year.
By: Marco Giannangeli
Published: Sun, February 10, 2013

54-per-cent-of-Bulgarians-said-that-they-would-like-to-escape-their-poverty-stricken-country 54 per cent of Bulgarians said that they would like to escape their poverty-stricken country

In a nationwide poll, a total of 54 per cent said that they would like to escape their poverty-stricken country and seek a better life here. The scale of the influx will send a shudder through Whitehall and could bolster Ukip�s campaign in the Eastleigh by-election in Hampshire later this month.

The Sunday Express took Ukip�s deputy leader Paul Nuttall to Bulgaria last week to see whether rumours of a stampede of migrants were exaggerated. During the three-day trip a poll of 4,400 people by the national television channel BTV delivered the startling result that more than half the population of 7.5 million have their sights set on Britain.

Speaking in the capital Sofia, Mr Nuttall said: �There are obviously a large number of Bulgarians who are looking to come to Britain for a better life and they can�t be blamed for that. Bulgaria is going through serious problems, endemic corruption, an economy that has flat-lined, and I suspect their youngest and brightest will try to find work. � When they come to the UK, however, and encounter our own 22 per cent youth unemployment, they will realise it�s not so easy to find a job. There will only be one place to go � straight on to the benefits system. It�s the last thing our country can afford at a time when we are on the brink of another recession.�

There are obviously a large number of Bulgarians who are looking to come to Britain for a better life and they can�t be blamed for that.

Paul Nuttall

Comments by Ukip leader Nigel Farage led to a demonstration in Sofia on Thursday with anti-British placards saying: �Stop insulting Bulgaria.� Mr Farage had inflamed the rightwing mob with his remark: �If I were Bulgarian I�d be packing my bags now, waiting to come to Britain.�

Demonstrators stormed a press conference held by Mr Nuttall and Slavi Binev, leader of the opposition Civic Movement for Real Democracy, accusing Ukip of racism. One protester said: �We want to come to Britain � why wouldn�t we? But Ukip is causing bad feelings against Bulgarians and we are afraid that we will not be welcome.�

In a televised press conference, Mr Nuttall told Bulgarians that a �brain drain� would be just as bad for Bulgaria as for the UK. �You need to ensure that your brightest stay and make your own country economically prosperous instead of coming to the UK to serve tea and coffee,� he said. Campaigning in Eastleigh yesterday, Mr Farage stuck to his guns, saying: �Our number one issue is that this country faces a second massive migratory wave. We have nothing against people from Bulgaria, we wish them well, but we cannot think it�s right that this country has a total open-door policy.� Daniel Kalinov, manager of an employment agency in Sofia, said about 10 per cent of his clients wanted to settle in the UK. �They think they will have a better retirement. The rest will come back eventually.�

thomas davison · Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 1:15 pm Post subject:

Flood of poor Bulgarian immigrants is more pressure on resources
JUST three miles from Bulgaria�s capital city Sofia lie shanty towns of shocking squalor where hungry Roma children lie nine to a bed and rats forage for food in excrement-strewn streets.
Published: Sun, February 10, 2013

Shanty-towns-in-Bulgaria-are-rife-with-disease-and-poverty Shanty towns in Bulgaria are rife with disease and poverty

While the Euro-elite bickered over the bloated European Union budget the Sunday Express was investigating the levels of appalling poverty in which millions of Bulgarians are condemned to live. Small wonder then that in a poll conducted by Bulgaria�s state television last week 54 per cent of those questioned said they would rather come to Britain than stay in their impoverished home country.

From the start of 2014 there will be no barriers to prevent an influx from both Bulgaria and Romania as people come to find work or draw benefits. Experts have warned of a �significant spike� of newcomers. In 2004 the Labour government allowed free migration to the UK for workers from EU accession states including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic but its predictions that only 13,000 people a year would arrive proved wildly out. Official statistics show more than 600,000 Eastern Europeans are now working in Britain.

Ministers are refusing to say how many Bulgarians they estimate will come but Ukip�s leader Nigel Farage says he would be �packing his bags now� if he were Bulgarian. It is easy to see why families would want to escape their grinding poverty and leave a country in the grip of political corruption and criminal gangs. But it is impossible to see how a mass influx of tens of millions of desperate and poverty-stricken Bulgarians will benefit Britain.