Across Europe there are an estimated 10 million Roma people - a large number of them live in poverty and face daily discrimination because o...
Across Europe there are an estimated 10 million Roma people - a large number of them live in poverty and face daily discrimination because of their background.nnTheir plight was highlighted earlier this year when a Roma couple in Greece were accused of abducting a young blonde girl called Maria.nnThe BBC's Yalda Hakim has had rare access to a community in Baia Mare in north Romania to see what life is really like for them.n==================================nnOn immigration patrol with British police in Romania.nnAt the end of December, temporary work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians who come to the UK are being lifted, allowing them the same benefits and NHS care as other EU citizens. Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon has travelled to Romania with British police on an intelligence and information gathering mission. One of the aims of their visit is to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work.nn"Very good in Cricklewood."nnA remote village in the Carpathian mountains is a strange place to hear someone talking about London.nnApata might look like any other rural, tranquil town in Romania but this one has a secret.nnAnd the British police have come all this way to try to unlock it.nnWhen a camp of Romanian squatters were evicted from Hendon football club in June, 65 out of the 68 people they found sleeping in makeshift shelters were from the village.nnI have travelled here with Chief Superintendent Adrian Usher. He polices Barnet in north London, which he says is home to more Romanians than anywhere else in the UK, many of them from the Roma ethnic minority.nnAs if to illustrate the depth of the connection between Apata and the UK, one young girl runs up to me shouting English phrases she has picked up from villagers who have returned from London.nnCh Supt Usher wants to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work.nn"If you come to the UK without a named job to go to, then you're at really increased risk of being exploited or being the victim or perpetrator of crime," he told a group of villagers.nnHe said the welfare of Romanians who migrate to London was just as important a concern as that of Londoners themselves.nn"I'm not here to comment on any particular issues at all. We're here to protect all the residents of London and that includes those people who come to London looking for work."nnNobody knows how many Romanians or Bulgarians will move to the UK in January. The UK government is not making any official predictions.nnCommunities Secretary Eric Pickles has said he has no confidence in figures, published on his department's own website, predicting that about 13,000 will arrive. Pressure group Migration Watch has predicted 50,000 could come to the UK every year until 2019.nnThe Romanian Ambassador, Dr Ion Jinga, has said: "Because Romania has joined the European Union seven years ago... those Romanians who wanted to go and live and work abroad, they already did so."nnHe adds: "A very tiny minority of Romanians have chosen Britain as their work destination."nnAccording to the Office for National Statistics, in July 2012 there were 94,000 people who were born in Romania and 47,000 people who were born in Bulgaria resident in the UK.nnGrim campsnnOne resident, who told us his name was Alexandru, said as many as 400 villagers might have left for London already.nnAlexandru said that his cousin was the first to leave for London and he followed him after he recommended moving there.nnAlexandru said he left because there is so little work in Romania. He said villagers were prepared to live in grim camps in the UK for the chance of a foothold in the UK construction black market.nnHe showed me a cooker which he had been able to afford following his time spent working in London.nnAlexandru plans to return to Cricklewood in north London in the New Year. It is an area where hundreds of Romanians are part of a growing underclass of migrants.nn'No money left'nnBack in the UK another immigrant, called Alex, told me he was from a small, mainly Roma village, over the hill from Apata. He said he had been working in the construction black market in Cricklewood for a few months.nnHe worked for cash-in-hand, paid no tax and had no national insurance number.nnHe spoke no English, had no qualifications and wanted his wife and children to join him from Romania.nnSource: http://goo.gl/lZMvRY Less
