Gość: kruk
IP: *.pub.pl
01.05.04, 17:54
HISTORY will be made today as new EU citizens begin leaving their homelands
for new lives in Britain.
They will come in their hundreds by coach, train and plane, desperate for
decently-paid work — or any job at all.
They are citizens of ten new member states of the EU who now have the right
to live and work in Britain.
Those states are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
Eight are poverty-stricken former Soviet states in Eastern Europe — with a
total population of 75 million.
Our government says there are half a million jobs waiting here to be filled.
And if the new arrivals find legitimate work in Britain, paying tax and
national insurance, they will qualify for a range of benefits.
These will include free health care, child tax credit, child benefit, working
tax credit and housing benefit.
Other EU countries like France and Germany have ruled out free access to jobs
for up to seven years.
Small wonder that eager men and women used to working for a pittance in
countries with huge unemployment are snapping up tickets to the UK.
People out to get a head start in the exodus crammed into coaches yesterday
at stations in Warsaw, Poland, the Czech capital Prague and the Slovak
capital Bratislava.
Seventy-one LATVIANS smiled as they boarded a double-decker bus in the
capital Riga for a 24-hour journey west.
Coach firm Eco-Lines said they had put on an extra service to London this
week for the £75 trip. All services are booked for the next week.
ESTONIANS are travelling from their capital Tallinn, via Helsinki in Finland.
Budget airlines like Sky Europe, which has services from Slovakia to Britain,
have reportedly sold out all flights.
POLAND’S Air Polonia alone has bookings for about 4,000 migrant workers this
month.
Warsaw-based coach operator Orbis expects migrants to fill 1,500 of its
monthly 4,500 seats to Dover.
Here The Sun follows one couple as they set off from Krakow, Poland . . .
We've seen our
dream come true
Long journey ... migrants arrive from Eastern Europe
From OLIVER HARVEY
in Krakow
POLISH builder Piotr Szepsel arrived in Britain yesterday and said: “It’s
like a dream to be here at last.”
Piotr, 39, and wife Anna, 31, were among the first in a wave of migrants from
impoverished Eastern Europe.
The Sun followed the couple as they embarked on their 1,000-mile journey from
a cramped flat in the city of Krakow to Barking, East London.
Piotr has been unemployed for two years despite being a skilled plasterer,
plumber, tiler and electrician.
When he could find occasional labouring work, he earned just £7 a DAY.
He said: “I want to find a job as soon as possible.
“We came because Britain is allowing us to work here legally. Other EU
countries won’t. I can’t find a job in Poland. Unemployment is so high.
“I will not claim benefits in Britain. My family already here will help me
find a job.
“I’ve been planning this move for months and have borrowed money for our
plane tickets.”
New life ... Anna and Piotr
leave Polish airport yesterday
Pictures: PHIL HANNAFORD
Their lifestyle here cannot fail to be an improvement on the dingy apartment
they shared with Anna’s sister Iwona, 36, and her husband and two children.
The two couples slept inches from each other in the 12ft by 12ft living room.
Anna said: “We want to start a family but it was difficult. If we wanted to
be intimate we asked my sister and her husband to have a night out at the
cinema.”
She and Piotr could contribute little to the £80-a-month rent or £35 a month
in electricity and water bills.
Iwona’s husband earns £100 a month assembling plastic windows.
Piotr, who is learning English, was made redundant from Krakow's Lenin Steel
Works two years ago.
He said: “Britain is a wonderful opportunity for us. I don’t think the
economy will get better in Poland when we join the EU.”
The couple packed their meagre possessions into just two hold-alls. It
amounted to Piotr’s building tools and a few clothes.
They waved tearful goodbyes to family and friends who gave them a lift to
Katowice airport, 1½hrs away through pine and birch forests and rolling
plains.
They had paid £97 each for a one-way ticket on board the 7.20am Air Polonia
flight to London Stansted.
Piotr and Anna’s first sight of Britain was the patchwork of fields and
picturesque Essex villages as the plane prepared to land at Stansted.
At 8.45am they touched down in drizzle on a typical grey English morning.
But the excited couple smiled when they saw their new home — a pebble-dashed
semi in a pleasant road outside Barking town centre.
Exciting prospects ... hours later the couple
examine jobs on offer in Barking, East London
They will share the £900-a-month two-bedroomed house with Anna’s cousin,
Marius Kacica.
Painter and decorator Marius, 24, has lived in Britain for five years.
He said: “We will do everything we can to help them start a new life. It’s
great to see them. For Poles Britain offers a better life.”
Piotr’s first impressions of Barking were good. He said: “There’s a real mix
of people here. I’m sure we will love it.”
After their travel expenses, the pair have around £200 left to live on.
But they will be able to stay with Marius for nothing until Piotr has a job —
and they have their own bedroom.
Unemployment among the 38 million population of Poland is 18 per cent — four
times higher than in Britain.
The average wage is just £4,200 a year.
Yesterday afternoon Piotr went straight to Barking job centre.
He found there were more than a 100 jobs going in the construction industry
in the town — with plasterers being hired at £12 an hour.
Delighted Piotr added: “I just want to work hard and start a family and look
after them.
“Your country is the best place to help me achieve my dreams.”
