East European migrants returned to their home countries at taxpayers’ expense are back on the streets of London.
In July, more than 20 Roma were given tickets for flights and coaches to Romania after being rounded up in a raid by immigration officers and police on their encampment in Park Lane.
Tickets were supplied by the UK Border Agency and homelessness charity Thames Reach, also funded by taxpayers.
But now Westminster city council says it is aware that six of the group - almost a third - have come back.
As the Evening Standard has reported, a group of migrants have been sleeping rough in Park Lane, Marble Arch and Bryanston Square throughout the summer.
Earlier this month we revealed that east European migrants were sleeping rough in and around Marble Arch and Park Lane amid reports of increased begging along Oxford Street and Edgware Road. It came after ten homeless east Europeans were moved on from the grounds of the Imperial War Museum.
The latest development has infuriated Conservative-run Westminster council, which has accused the migrants of antisocial behaviour and fuelling petty crime.
Councillor Nickie Aiken told the Sunday Telegraph: “We need to get stricter at the border, particularly if these people have agreed to go home in the first place at taxpayers’ expense. What we are witnessing is a carousel for career beggars.”
The council estimates it spends more than £500,000 a year tackling the problem.
The Home Office said it was unable to say whether the Roma it had funded to go home had since returned.
Read More
Thames Reach, which is funded by London’s local authorities and other public bodies, said: “There are particular issues in relation to Romanian rough sleepers and those engaged in street activity which may mean some choose to return.”
