"If you don't hold a work permit, you are not allowed to work in the UK," reads a poster presented as part of an information campaign rolled out by the British Embassy in Sofia at the end of last year. File photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Romania's acting ambassador to the UK has greeted the British government's decision to continue restrictions on migrant workers from Bulgaria and Romania with disappointment, saying the move was symbolic not practical, the Guardian Unlimited reported.
"I still have to get a convincing explanation from a British official why they are imposing restrictions on a people who are not coming here in great numbers, while there are larger numbers of migrants from other countries," she told Guardian Unlimited.
The decision to exclude Romanians from Britain's traditionally flexible labour market was "symbolic and not practical," she said, adding that she feared Romanian migrants would now be vulnerable to exploitation in the "grey market."
In expressing her government's "regret" to Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, Raduta Matache questioned the logic of the restrictions, saying Romanians accounted for less than 1% of the migrant workers in Britain.
Matache also claimed government figures inflated the number of applications for work permits from Romanians and Bulgarians because they also included students who work part-time as well as dependents not engaged in work.
The British government approved in October 2006 measures to curb immigration to the UK from Romania and Bulgaria, making food processing and agriculture the only sectors initially opened to "less skilled" workers from the two countries.
The restrictions were extended at the beginning of November until at least the end of 2008 under pressure over the number of foreign workers coming into the country.