Worker restrictions 'akin to prejudice'
22.06.2007
Some Romanians feel they have been discriminated against and believe the UK’s worker restrictions should be annulled immediately.
When Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on January 1st 2007 the UK limited the number of low-skilled workers allowed to work in the country to 19,750.
In the first three months of the year just fewer than 8,000 of these permits were taken.
On Thursday Ministers signalled that a decision on whether or not to lift the work restrictions would be made within the last three months of this year.
One London-based Romanian businessman Cristian Macsim views the limitations on his fellow citizens as discrimination.
“There shouldn’t have been restrictions in the first place…They should’ve given us the same conditions [as the Polish] because we are not worse or better, we are the same.”
But Romania’s Honorary Consul in Southampton Dr Roxana Carare empathises with the British government’s deliberation on this issue.
“Whilst the initial impulse is to consider them harsh, one has to look at the fact that Britain has had a large number of Polish people coming and working here,” she said.
“It’s had advantages and disadvantages and I think that’s why the government have decided to take a more cautious approach to Romania.”
