Our Paper

Front and Back Pages, E-Edition and Back Issues...

Weather

Horoscope

10C

London

Wednesday 12th September 2012

Site

Google

MIGRANTS MAKE MUGS OF US ALL

Wednesday September 12,2012

Macer Hall
A BULGARIAN family of nine who targeted Britains soft welfare system have been given a council house just three weeks after arriving here.

Jobless Rusi Georgiev, 41, headed to the UK with partner Mariana Sabeva, 34, and their seven children after reportedly telling fellow Bulgarians he would live on benefits here.

The family set up a squalid camp outside Westminster Cathedral in central London and were handed accommodation after lodging a claim for asylum with the Home Office.

Last night, critics said it was another example of foreigners taking the British people for mugs by milking our lax benefits system.

Tory MP Mark Spencer said: My constituents are sick to the back teeth with this sort of thing.

People who work hard and fall on hard times find that getting access to benefits is intolerably long winded. Then they see people coming into this country who have contributed nothing and easily getting handouts. It is morally indefensible.

Mr Spencer, MP for Sherwood, Notts, added: People from Bulgaria should not be coming here to claim asylum it is another EU country. This is another problem brought about by our membership of the EU. We should not be being told what to do by Europe. Nicholas Soames, Tory MP for Mid Sussex, condemned the housing offer as unacceptable. UK Independence Party Euro-MP Gerard Batten said: We cant blame the Bulgarians, they are speaking the plain truth. Our membership of the European Union means that we are essentially inviting every parasite in the EU to come and take advantage of our housing and benefits system. We are the biggest mugs in the world to allow this to happen. I have decent, hard-working constituents in London who are losing benefits and cannot get public housing. But at the same we have flung our doors open to people who have never paid a penny in taxation to the UK and probably never will. Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: Ministers must ensure Britain isnt an easy target for benefit tourism. Asylum is not meant for anyone who fancies an easy life at taxpayers expense. The family arrived in the UK legally, travelling by coach and using European Union passports. Initially, they were given council emergency accommodation, then set up camp outside Westminster Cathedral. Witnesses said they were living in squalid conditions, sleeping on the ground surrounded by dirty nappies. Westminster Council then took them off the street because of safeguarding concerns about the children. They are now living in accommodation funded by taxpayers while officials process their asylum claim. A fellow Bulgarian told reporters: They heard about the benefits here and have come to claim them. Theyve been offered tickets back to Bulgaria by the authorities but they want to stay. In Bulgaria they cant get these benefits. More and more people are going to do this.

I can totally understand the frustration of Westminster taxpayers that they are paying for people who apparently are here to play the system. The case emerged a day after Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith attacked benefit tourism. He told the Commons on Monday: It is not right for us to end up with a system other countries agree on this in which someone can literally arrive here and, only days after, decide they are not working and therefore they are eligible for benefits. That would be quite wrong for the British taxpayer. Ministers are currently fighting a court battle against European rules insisting that EU migrants are eligible to claim certain welfare benefits as soon as they arrive in the UK. Recent figures from Whitehall showed that foreigners are now pocketing 2.1billion in UK welfare handouts every year. A Government report showed that 371,000 people claiming working age benefits were non-British citizens. Other official figures showed that one in eight of all council houses for young adults are now occupied by foreigners.

Home | Dating | Archive | NEWS | SPORT | FEATURES | MONEY | HOROSCOPE | TRAVELOK! Magazine | The Daily Star | new! Magazine | Star Magazine Sitemap | Print Archive | Contact | Advertise Here | Site Credits Copyright 2006-2012 Northern and Shell Media Publications. "Daily Express" is a registered trademark. All rights reserved. By viewing this site you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.