Thousands of EU migrants coming to Britain

More than 447,000 people have come to Britain seeking work from the new countries in the European Union, the latest government figures have revealed.

The Home Office figures showed that 427,095 workers had been approved to start jobs in the UK.

However, the Home Office said that the current figures could be closer to 600,000 if self-employed workers, such as builders, were included.

The figures covers people from Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus,which joined the EU in 2004.

More than half the workers - 264,560 - came from Poland.

The government has claimed that migrant workers are helping to fill gaps in the UK's labour market.

However, the figures are likely to spark calls for limits to be introduced on the number of migrants allowed into Britain when Bulgaria and Romania join the EU in January 2007.

The Conservatives have called for restrictions to be imposed on migrant workers when the two countries join the EU.

Trade Secretary Alistair Darling also appeared to express concern on the issue, stressing that there would be no "open door" policy for Bulgarian and Romania workers.

However, Liberal Democrat trade and industry spokesperson, Edward Davey, said: "We must not lose sight of the fact that immigration is a tremendous benefit to the UK economy.

"It would be unfair to use the government’s incompetence in handling migrants from the EU as an excuse for imposing protectionist measures.

"We still do not know if Bulgaria and Romania will be joining the EU in January, and scaremongering before we know the facts achieves nothing.

"The government must now encourage the rest of the European Union to drop their protectionist labour restrictions so that the whole of Europe benefits from the accession of new member states."

(KMcA)