Illegal immigrants living in British gardens

At first sight, the piles of rubbish and debris strewn across this garden make it look just like a rubbish tip.

But on closer inspection, it is revealed to be a makeshift camp for desperate Eastern European immigrants.

Around a dozen are camping out in residents' gardens, sheds and even their trees as they cannot afford their own homes.

Those who live in the street in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, have been told they are powerless to remove the trespassers taking shelter on their land.

Groups of immigrants have moved into the gardens of at least six properties since November last year, leaving a trail of cider bottles, bags of human waste and drugs needles behind them.

Though homeowners have appealed for help, the police and council say they cannot arrest the trespassers - who have no passports and are mostly from Eastern Europe - because they claim it is a civil, not a criminal matter.

The immigrants gained access to the land through an open alleyway and sleep on dirty mattresses, using rolled-up blankets as pillows.

Ian Treasure, 41, one of the homeowners affected by the camps, said a man named Joseph from the Czech Republic was living in his garden coal shed.

Despite six phone calls to Peterborough City Council pleading with them to evict the immigrants and remove the mountains of dumped rubbish, he could not get the man to leave.

Mr Treasure said: 'The area has become overrun. It is disgusting and the worst thing is that nobody is doing anything about it. Every day it gets worse.

'It all started in November. I was looking out of the window and I saw a mattress in my coal shed. I went out and it turned out I had a lodger there.

'I'm not sure how many there are because I try to stay away from them but I'm fed up because they regularly drink in our gardens and take drugs.'

Mr Treasure said he had asked the man, who speaks broken English and has scabs on his face, to leave dozens of times.

'The angriest I have got was the first time I saw drug needles there in January. I freaked out,' he said.

Mr Treasure added that he was incredibly frustrated that the council and police had done nothing to help him.

He added: 'The police's hands are tied. All they can do is just move them on and then they would be back so it would be a waste of time.'

Ricky Smith, 23, attempted to remove the squatter in his shed after catching him defecating on his lawn on Wednesday night.

He said: 'I slung all his belongings into a pile and told him to get out. I haven't seen him since so hopefully he has got the message.

'I caught him defecating on my lawn, where my dog plays. I had to build a fence to keep him out of that part of the garden so my dog doesn't get ill playing in his mess.'

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire police said that the makeshift camps were not a criminal matter.

He said: 'Anybody is allowed to use reasonable force to stop people trespassing and get them off their property - much like a bouncer in a pub or club.

'If there is some sort of confrontation then we can step in and prevent a breach of the peace, but we cannot act directly against the trespassers.'

A spokesman for Peterborough council said: 'We are aware of a number of people who are sleeping in these gardens.

'We will be working to help them access the services which are available to them.'

Peterborough's MP Stewart Jackson today said Labour had failed to deal with immigration problems that have led to jobless migrants camping in British gardens.

The Tory MP said: 'The Labour government was warned that uncontrolled immigration would cause these sorts of problems.

'They have ignored Peterborough's needs and local taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for their foolish and misguided policies.'

Daily Mail

Questions:

1) If they are illegal immigrants why can't they be arrested?

2) If they are taking drugs why can't they be arrested?

3) 'We will be working with them to help them access the services which are available to them'... WTF????

4) Can someone please define reasonable force?

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1 in 10 living in Britain are foreign nationals

The number of immigrants living in Britain has almost doubled in less than three decades, official figures show.

More than 10 per cent of the population - 6.7million - were born abroad, the Office for National Statistics has found.

The analysis shows that the count of those born abroad - now agreed to be the best figure for measuring the rate of immigration - is two million higher than it was just eight years ago.

And the figure is nearly double the 3.38million people born abroad who were recorded as living in Britain in 1981.

The scale of immigration over the past few years was set out in a breakdown by National Statistician Jil Matheson, the recently-appointed head of the Government's Office for National Statistics.

She said that there are 689,000 migrants from Eastern Europe in Britain, an increase of 522,000 since Poland and seven other Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004.

But these make up only one in ten of the foreign-born population of the country, Miss Matheson found.

She also endorsed the ONS projections that say that the UK population will hit the politically sensitive 70million mark in 2029.

She added the recession is likely to have only a small impact on the record levels of immigration since 2001.

The ONS report found that Eastern Europeans have begun to emigrate as well as to arrive in Britain, and overall 20,000 more Eastern Europeans came to this country than left it in 2008.

Current research, Miss Matheson added, suggests that 'a short-term period of falling immigration can be expected, before immigration levels rise again to pre-recession levels'.

She concluded: 'The current recession is likely to have a small and temporary effect on net migration.'

Her findings run counter to assurances from Gordon Brown and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas that the new Home Office points-based immigration system will curb numbers coming into the country and the 70million population mark will never be reached.

Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch think-tank, said: 'This report confirms the massive impact of immigration on our population under the present Government.

'It must be brought under control, but so far Government policies are completely inadequate for the purpose.'

However, Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: 'These population projections do not take into account the impact of future government policies or those Eastern Europeans who came here, contributed, and are now going home.

'Projections are uncertain. For instance in the 1960s they said our population would reach 76million by the year 2000, this was off target by 16million.'

He added: 'And let's be clear the category "foreign-born mothers" includes British people born overseas - such as children whose parents are in the armed forces or those who come to Britain at a very early age.'

Previous research counted the number of foreign passport holders, but with many being granted British citizenship counting those who are foreign born is now thought to give the most accurate figure.

The findings on the scale of immigration follow evidence that the arrival of large numbers of migrant workers has pushed down wages and living standards for low-paid workers.

A report last week by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation charity found that the poorest-paid working families have been getting poorer and suffering greater unemployment not since the onset of recession, but from 2004 onwards during a time of economic boom.

Source

1 IN 5 KILLERS IS FOREIGN

Immigrants are twice as likely to commit or be charged with an illegal killing.

Up to a fifth of killers in England and Wales are foreign, police figures suggest. Out of 371 individuals accused or convicted of murder or manslaughter last year, 79 were from abroad - more than 21 per cent.

Foreign immigrants make up only around a tenth of the UK population, meaning they are statistically twice as likely as native Britons to be charged with or found guilty of an illegal killing.

In London, almost 40 per cent of those in such cases in the past year were from overseas, or of unknown origin.

Opposition critics said the findings reflected the Government's failure to deport foreign criminals, and the ease with which offenders from abroad can slip through border controls.

The most common nationality for foreigners involved in murder and manslaughter cases was Polish, followed by Nepalese, Lithuanian, Somalian and Sri Lankan.

Around half the police forces across England and Wales provided data under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing strong regional differences.

The highest figures were in London where in the year to April 2009, 93 of the 233 people accused or convicted of murder and manslaughter were either non-British or from unknown backgrounds.

In West Mercia, five out of 22 were foreigners - 23 per cent - from Lithuania, Poland, and the Republic of Ireland. Nottinghamshire showed the same proportion, with three out of 13 cases.

But some forces - including Cheshire, Humberside, Hampshire, and Merseyside - recorded no cases with foreign killers. The figures may be an underestimate as 11 out 30 forces which responded claimed they did not record nationalities of either killers or murder victims, and others had gaps in the information.

As foreign suspects are typically harder to identify and trace, meaning that crimes are less likely to be solved, the real proportion could be significantly higher.

The figures showed foreigners were also more likely to be victims of murder or manslaughter, accounting for 20 per cent of all those killed in England and Wales in 2007-8, and 13 per cent last year.

Concerns about convicted offenders entering Britain were underlined in April by the case of Marek Harcar, 33, who was sentenced to a minimum 25 years in jail for the abduction, rape and murder of businesswoman Moira Jones.

Slovakian Harcar was allowed into Britain despite having 13 convictions, four of them involving violence. He abducted the 40-year-old just yards from her home on May 28 last year. Her semi-naked body was found in Queen's Park in Glasgow the next day.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said: 'The Government seem to have completely failed to get to grips with foreign nationals' crime in the UK.

'These figures underline the scale of the problem, but we know the Government are simply failing to deport offenders in the way they should be.'

Earlier this year Detective Chief Inspector Murray Duffin, of the Scotland Yard Extradition and Intelligence Unit, warned: 'Britain is becoming a magnet for increasing numbers of criminals from the former Eastern bloc countries which are now members of the EU.'
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