One in five homeless in London are Romanians with figures doubling over the past year

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Români în Marea Britanie ✍ Romanians in Great Britain

15 martie 2016

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Nearly a fifth of rough sleepers on the streets of London are Romanian, a Whitehall report said yesterday.

It said that of 7,581 rough sleepers, 1,388 said they were from Romania – almost double the 730 recorded last year

The high count of street dwellers from Romania follows complaints from local politicians that organised gangs from the country allocate areas for sleeping and run crime operations covering begging, robbery and prostitution.

ROMAINIANS ON THE INCREASE AT MARBLE ARCH PICTURE JEREMY SELWYN 113/10/2015 — ROMAINIANS ON THE INCREASE AT MARBLE ARCH
PICTURE JEREMY SELWYN
113/10/2015

Of 7,500 rough sleepers in London some 1,388 say they are from Romania
The number of Romanian rough sleepers has almost doubled in a year
Local politicians claim organised gangs control begging and robbery
Some new arrivals are given ‘begging pitches’ before arriving in London

According to the estimates published by the Communities Department, fewer than half the rough sleepers in London are British. The count, carried out over the year to the end of March 2015 by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain), said there were 3,212 British rough sleepers – 43 per cent of the total. There were 639 from Poland and 227 from Lithuania.

The large number of Romanian street sleepers was the subject of an inquiry by Westminster Council in 2012.