from The Evening Standard, UK
Bulgarians without UK visas or work permits have been told to head to Britain where they can easily get black-market jobs despite regular check-ups by authorities.
An undercover investigation revealed just how easily foreign workers can land a job by using forged documents.
A pair of Bulgarian undercover reporters found they could earn illegally in a day in London what most Bulgarians earn in a month, despite the fact that they had no work permits.
Journalists working for 24 Chasa, one of Bulgaria's biggest newspapers, wrote that they earned GBP 50 a day on a construction site and GBP 70 a day in a real estate agency. The average monthly wage in Bulgaria is around GBP 70 a month.
Their report 'Black market jobs - a disgrace for England' revealed that neither of their employers, nor the Health and Safety Agency officials who performed regular check-ups at the construction site, ever demanded a work permit.
The undercover journalists' report was published yesterday and concluded that Bulgarians travelling to the UK illegally can easily attain jobs despite recent measures to curb illegal immigration.
The Bulgarian article also quoted Home Secretary John Reid's statement that it will be very difficult for UK authorities to stick to the government restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers after they join the EU next year.
One of the reporters described how he went on a job interview in a real estate agency with a fake CV and a forged home office document he had obtained for GBP 30, stating that his visa was currently under consideration.
The reporter told the unnamed company's HR manager that his self-employment visa had expired and that his passport was with the home office while a new visa was being issued.
He was employed on the spot as a real estate agent despite the fact that the only ID document he was able to produce was his Bulgarian driving licence.
The journalists also went to an illegal labour market on the corner of Cricklewood Lane and Sheldon Road in North London, which they said consisted mainly of Poles, as well as Albanians, Romanians and Bulgarians without work permits.
The men stand there every morning between 6 and 8am waiting to get picked up by employers looking for manual workers.
The scheme reportedly involves English employers who hire Indian, Pakistani or Albanian subcontractors, who then look for black market workers willing to work for up to 13 hours a day for GBP 50, less than half of what skilled English labourers would demand.
The rule among the workers is to take the wage on the same day, as promises of weekly payments reportedly often turned out to be frauds.
The reporters then described how they and ten Poles were picked up by an Indian subcontractor with a bus and taken to a construction site somewhere in London. The foreman at the site was also a Bulgarian without a working permit.
After working there for a few days they were approached by another Albanian subcontractor who offered them a job.
He is quoted as saying: "If you work well, I will give you food as well." In a separate development, it was revealed that this year has seen a record number of Bulgarian citizenships granted to foreigners. Over 6,000 foreigners have been granted Bulgarian citizenship since the beginning of the year, in a trend that is believed to be triggered by Bulgaria's admission to the European Union this January.
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