No 'open door' for new EU migrants
Monday, 21 August 2006 12:00 AM
The government has insisted there is no question of having an "open door" to migrants coming to the UK from Romania and Bulgaria when the countries join the EU next year.
Trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling said there would be a "properly managed, properly controlled" system of handing out work permits, based on the needs of the economy at any one time.
He was speaking after the Conservatives yesterday called for restrictions on workers from the two eastern European countries, which are due to become members of the EU on January 1st next year, although this has yet to be finalised.
Shadow immigration minister Damian Green warned ministers must learn from the "unprecedented number" of foreign workers who arrived when ten countries, including Poland, joined the EU in 2004.
The UK was one of only a few EU states to grant these new citizens full working rights. The government said the influx has benefited the economy, but there are concerns about how far ministers underestimated the number of people who would take up the offer.
"What's happened quite simply is that far more people came in the first wave of accession countries than anyone expected, particularly the government," Mr Green told Channel Four News last night.
"The government thought something like 15,000 people would come. In fact it's probably something like 600,000. The fact that you've got all that number here means you've got problems for local authorities in providing housing and school places."
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) last week urged ministers to "pause" before opening up the UK's employment market to further new member states.
Officially, the government has yet to take a decision on any possible limits on Romanian or Bulgarian workers coming to the UK.
But yesterday Mr Darling stressed: "We will need to consider along with other countries, along with other institutions in this country, what our requirements are, so that this is done in a managed way - in a way that is reasonable, in a way that is balanced."
Questioned whether there would be an open door to migrant workers, he told BBC Radio Four's The World This Weekend: "No. No-one who deals with the immigration system fails to realise we have got to a have a system that is properly managed, properly controlled.
"What we need to do is balance the skills that we require - and yes our economy does need skills in some areas - and at the same time have a system that is properly managed, so that we can take care of all the other things that we need to consider, like the healthcare system and the education system and so on."
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