In response to Migration Watch UK’s report released today on the scale of potential immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, Frank Field and Nicholas Soames, Co-chairs of the Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration said:

“Migration Watch UK have produced an extraordinarily serious forecast which estimates that 50,000 immigrants a year, for the next five years, will come from Romania and Bulgaria. Given Migration Watch UK’s excellent track record of forecasting the scale of immigration, the Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration calls on the Government to examine with urgency the impact of such numbers and how an influx on such a scale could be properly managed.

Such an examination must include reviewing the current rules around accessing the benefits system which need tightening so that only those that have been in the country for a substantial amount of time and have contributed through taxes would have entitlement.

The last Government appallingly underestimated the scale of the last wave of European migration and therefore did not plan for the impact – this must not be allowed to happen again.”

ENDS

Migration Watch UK’s report can be found here:
http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefingPaper/document/287