Bulgaria - the melting pot of poverty and corruption
IT is a scene of utter desperation, reminiscent of the poorest shanty towns in Brazil, South Africa and India.
What roads that exist are little more than dirt tracks strewn with rubbish and excrement. The slightest rainfall turns them to rivers of mud. Rats and disease are rife.
In one hastily-erected shack, a single room with ill-fitting windows and no heat, nine children lie on filthy mattresses, some no more than babies, their tears leaving tracks across their dirty faces as they cry for food and the warm embrace of parents who are not there.
'Romanians' has become a dirty word in Whitehall
The Home Office is privately examining the possible impact of restrictions being lifted on Romanians and Bulgarians who want to live and work in Britain.
The Government privately acknowledges that the issue is politically toxic for the Coalition, pointing to signs that the UK Independence Party is seeking to exploit the subject by linking immigration to the European Union. Only limited numbers of people from either country are likely to travel to Britain next year when restrictions on the freedom of movement of citizens of the two newest EU member states are scrapped, senior government sources believe.
But the subject is preoccupying Whitehall, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has commissioned private research on the likely demands on public services from newcomers.
The Government privately acknowledges that the issue is politically toxic for the Coalition, pointing to signs that the UK Independence Party is seeking to exploit the subject by linking immigration to the European Union. Only limited numbers of people from either country are likely to travel to Britain next year when restrictions on the freedom of movement of citizens of the two newest EU member states are scrapped, senior government sources believe.
But the subject is preoccupying Whitehall, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has commissioned private research on the likely demands on public services from newcomers.
