Two dozen Romanians have come to Britain, says ambassador Ion Jinga

15^th January 2014

Vanessa Smart

Vanessa Smart

15 January 2014

Since the border restrictions were lifted, just 24 Romanians have entered Britain from 1^st January, according to Romanian ambassador to London, Ion Jinga.

However, Jinga spoke of the uncertainty of exactly how many Romanians and Bulgarians had entered the country. “In the UK there is no obligation for foreigners to register to local authorities on arrival, and therefore it is not possible to know how many Romanians and Bulgarians came in the first two weeks,” he said in a letter to The Telegraph.

Mr Jinga encouraged that the expected arrival from Romania and Bulgaria were welcomed by British companies.

He added: “British companies are currently advertising 5,000 posts for Romanians to plug gaps in the highly skilled jobs market.”

The UK Independence Party (UKIP), were not as enthusiastic with the decision.

A UKIP spokeswoman said: “There is absolutely no problem in the UK having controlled immigration with Romania and Bulgaria where migrant workers come to fill gaps in the employment market, but simply opening the country up to anybody who wishes to live here is frankly irresponsible.” 

Jinga commented on how Romanians were working on plans to make Romanians stay in the country to boost their economic growth.

He said: “Romanian authorities are preoccupied to offer our people solid reasons to stay or come back to Romania, in order to sustain the current economic growth – 4.1% in the last quarter, the highest in the EU.

“But the free movement of people is a fundamental pillar of the Union and the European citizens have the right to decide where to reside and work within the EU.”

                                  Vanessa Smart