East European migrants at three-year low

The number of Eastern Europeans flocking to Britain to work as fruit-pickers, plumbers and waiters is at its lowest since 2005, official figures show.

Work applications from the eight countries that gained access to European Union job markets in May 2004 were down 13 percent for the January to March quarter of this year.

A total of 45,000 workers from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, applied to work in the UK compared with 52,000 for the same period last year, the Home Office said.

Bulgarians and Romanians, who have been able to work in Britain since January 2007, are coming in smaller numbers too, with figures down to their lowest level - 8,205 compared with 10,420 in the same period last year.

The figures seem to back recent surveys showing dwindling East European interest in coming to Britain.

Last month, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said half the one million East European immigrants to have arrived in Britain since 2004 have returned home.

The think-tank study also suggested their arrival would continue to slow as economic conditions improved at home.

"It is a question of when, not if, the great east European migration slows," Danny Sriskandarajah, co-author of the IPPR report said in April.

"With fewer migrants in and more migrants out, the UK seems to be experiencing turnstiles, not floodgates," he added.

The British government had originally predicted up to 13,000 migrant workers would arrive after the 2004 accessions but admitted later its calculations were wide of the mark.

The immigrants have fanned out across Britain, working as everything from plumbers and labourers to seasonal fruit pickers.

Some councils have complained the increased numbers have put additional strains on hospitals and schools, but now fears are growing that a sudden exodus could cause problems for industries which have come to rely on them.