Romania Envoy on Migrants: Clear Gap between Forecasts, Reality

Transitional arrangements limiting the work that Bulgarians and Romanians can do in the UK, in place since they joined the EU in 2007, expired on 1 January. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Romania's ambassador in Britain has confirmed the number of migrants coming to the country has seen no increase since work curbs were lifted.

"The Consular department of our Embassy has not registered an increase in the number of services required by Romanian nationals last month, compared to the same period of 2013," he told HuffPost UK.

Jinga confirmed that he could not know for certain how many of his countrymen had come to the UK in January until official figures come out in May.

But he was highly critical of the huge variety of estimates put forward, saying: "it is a huge field open to speculations exploited by tabloid media and xenophobic politicians."

Jinga went on: "The media shapes public opinion and, as we can see, it is a clear gap between predictions, perception and reality when speaking about the immigration of Romanians to the UK."

Last week David Cameron said the numbers coming over looked "reasonable".

The Home Office said it was not making projections at this stage.

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