[Cyclefrance]

Hitting the headlines in today's papers is the proposal by the government to hit migrant workers from Bulgaria and Roumania with £1,000 spot fines if found to be working illegally.

Sounds interesting, but hang on a minute, they also admit that it will be difficult to police and enforce - and that they are not sure what will happen to those who fail to pay the fine. The problem seems to be that people from these countries will be able to come to Britain under the EU free movement laws, so they can't be deported - maybe they'll qualify for benefits.... How that scenario plays against the proposal is difficult to work out at the moment. Some form of work permit scheme is intended, but how easy this will be to control is another issue. It doesn't seem to have worked well in other member states where this system is already employed.


The proposal is set against the information that the expected immigrants from formers Soviet states estimated as going to be 26,000 from 2004 to date, actually topped out at 627,000. Hmmmm.