New warning over EU immigration

Over a quarter of a million immigrants from eastern Europe could arrive in the UK unless restrictions are put in place, a new report has claimed.

Up to 300,000 Romanians and Bulgarians could come to the UK seeking work once their countries join the EU, campaign group Migrationwatch said.

It warned that Britain must not be among a handful of EU states to "go it alone" and allow unrestricted access for immigrant workers.

"It will also be essential to close off the benefit system, as for the earlier round, to prevent benefit tourism," the report stated.

Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch chairman, said it was "essential" that the government did not fully open the labour market until the intentions of other major EU states were clear.

"When the last batch of countries joined the EU two years ago, the government estimated that net migration to the UK would be between five and 13,000," he said.

"Yet in the period May 2004 to December 2005 there were no less than 345,000 applicants to the worker registration scheme which applies to workers from the new member states."

He added that even allowing for a significant proportion returning home, the net migration will be many times the government estimate.

The Conservatives backed the call for tougher restrictions.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "Last time the government opened up our borders on the ludicrous presumption that there would be less than 13,000 extra people migrating to into the UK per year.

"They were wrong by a factor of 15 and it is quite clear that to repeat this policy would have a very large and completely uncontrolled impact on further immigration into the UK."

Davis said it would be "vitally important for good community relations", as well as for public services and housing, that Britain retains ""proper control of our immigration policy".