Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Transport

Poles, Latvians and Lithuanians are swelling the numbers of homeless people in the county as seasonal work that brought them to the county dries up, writes LETA.

Police in Bognor and Littlehampton have now begun passing lists of names to the UK Border Agency, which has the power to forcibly remove people from the country if they are not working or “self-sufficient”.

About 6,000 Eastern European migrants have moved to the area since 2004 and registered to work although records do not show how many have since left.

The work is being carried out under Operation Accent, a dedicated police operation to tackle problems among the Eastern European community in West Sussex.

Inspector Nick Bowman, of Sussex Police’s Arun district, said more than half a dozen people have been reported to the UK Border Agency, with lists being drawn up on a monthly basis.

He said: “they come here because they are following the work. “We have seen an increase in homelessness with people from Eastern Europe. “We say to them, go and be homeless in your own country, because it is a drain on resources. It is a lawful process.”

The UK Border Agency confirmed it is using powers to remove jobless people from the country.

A spokeswoman said: “people from within the European Economic Area who have been in the country for longer than three months must be working, studying or self-sufficient in order to have a right to stay, as required by EU laws. If they are not, or do not have a genuine prospect of doing so, the UK Border Agency expects them to return home. If they do not, we will take action to enforce their removal from the country.”