By Alison Little
Express.co.uk

A survey found nearly a fifth of Bulgarians aged 15 to 55 are planning to move to another EU state in the next couple of years.

It could mean about 400,000 leaving when immigration controls on their movement in the European Union are lifted on January 1.

With Britain the second destination of choice behind Germany, as many as 80,000 could head here.

Conservative MP Philip Hollobone said: “I hope these findings are not right but I fear they are likely to be.

“As a nation we should prepare ourselves for yet another big wave of immigration to our shores over which we have no control thanks to our membership of the European Union.”

Fellow Tory MP Stewart Jackson said: “It is still an area which the Home Secretary and the Government need to address urgently, particularly in a small number of local authorities where there has been big impacts on infrastructure and public services like schools and housing caused by Labour’s open door immigration policy. We must continue to bear down on the ‘pull factors’ for new EU migrants and remember that protecting our own borders is more important than following European Union diktats.”

The Government has no choice on January 1 under European Union laws but to lift the controls that have been in place to limit the number of Bulgarian and Romanian workers able to live in Britain.

The survey by the agency Afis for the European Parliament found that a significant proportion – mostly qualified and well-educated professionals with only a minority admitting they expect to claim benefits – were keen to move.

Forty-three per cent of those who want to leave Bulgaria would like to go to Germany and more than a third – 34 per cent – want to come here.

English is now the most popular second language in Bulgaria.

A spokesman for the Bulgarian Embassy in London said: “The forecast according to the Afis survey is not that 400,000 but that only 193,000 would eventually migrate for a long term to other EU member states and this could happen from three to six years from now, not in January 2014 alone.

“We still do not have any estimates of how many Bulgarians may move to Britain and we stick to our position that it is hard to predict.”

Meanwhile yesterday a gang of Roma gypsies was accused of soaring crime and turning one of London’s most exclusive areas into a “sewer”.

Official crime figures show the gang of up to 50 migrants makes up a third of the total number of arrests for picking pockets in London’s Mayfair.

Westminster Councillor Nickie Allen said: “The figures indicate that the groups around Mayfair and Marble Arch are predominately Roma and they do cause a disproportionate amount of crime, begging and mess.

“We need a tightening of border controls to ensure that people whose only intent is to beg are not allowed.”

The problem emerged in a webchat with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

One resident accused the Roma of “defecating in the streets and committing anti-social behaviour”.

The Commissioner replied: “We will apply the criminal law where they are committing offences.”

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