Home AffairsLetter from Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Home Secretary, to the Chair of the Committee, 5 February 2013

Romanian and Bulgarian Migration Estimates

Thank you for your letter of 28 January about migration from Bulgaria and Romania, asking what measures we have taken in the last two years to curb abuse of free movement and tackle pull factors.

Whilst the government supports legitimate free movement, on taking office we inherited a framework of EU law—notably the 2004 Free Movement Directive and the EU Accession Treaties—that limits our ability to prevent abuse of free movement rights by those who are not genuinely exercising Treaty rights. Within those constraints, we have put in place a robust and uncompromising strategy both at EU level and domestically to tackle abuse of free movement and reduce the pull factors for migration.

First, we made an immediate decision that we would place transitional controls on free movement rights for all countries joining the EU in future. In 2011 we decided to extend for another two years the controls on Bulgaria and Romania. And last year we announced that we will apply similar transitional controls to Croatia when it joins, later this year.

We have teams of UK Border Agency (UKBA) enforcement officers and police working together to investigate sham marriage cases and ensure people are not able to benefit from breaking the UK’s immigration laws. There have been a number of successful prosecutions—most recently that of 18 members of a sham marriage gang centered on South Yorkshire who were jailed for more than 27 years after staging fake wedding ceremonies between Pakistani nationals and Czech, Slovak and British brides and grooms.

In September 2012 we set up Operation Nexus to target the increasing number of high-harm foreign national offenders and immigration offenders in London, including EU nationals. This is a joint operation between UKBA and the Metropolitan Police combining police and immigration intelligence and building working relationships with foreign police services—including 20 officers seconded from Romania. Its aim is to better identify offenders, including those individuals who have committed serious offences in their country of origin, and to speed up removals. So far, 275 people have been removed from the UK.

Last year we initiated cross-Government discussion to agree actions to reduce pull factors to harmful migration, such as access to benefits and our public services. We are considering a range of measures to prevent benefit tourism and to lessen possible impacts on public services and this work is being taken forward as a matter of the highest priority. We will bring forward proposals for action at the earliest opportunity.

At EU level I have raised the UK’s concerns about abuse of free movement rights at successive meetings of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council and have asked other Member States to support our call for stronger EU action to tackle sham marriages and document fraud. In April last year, the JHA Council agreed an action document on migration, “EU Action on Migratory Pressures—A Strategic Response”, which, on the UK’s initiative, includes as one of its strategic priorities “Safeguarding and protecting free movement by prevention of abuse of free movement rights by third country nationals”. The document lists actions such as sharing of information and intelligence, aiming to prevent sham marriages and identity fraud. The UK is part of a small group of Member States overseeing its implementation.

I believe the record of our actions stands in stark contrast to the system of uncontrolled immigration we inherited and fully demonstrates the importance we attach to this issue.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

February 2013