A POLICE task force should be sent from Romania to tackle the growing number of Roma squatting in some of Britain’s most prestigious streets, a town hall chief demanded last night. Gangs of Romanian gypsies descend on exclusive Park Lane in London and the plush residential areas around Oxford Street each night to sleep rough. Angry residents say between 50 and 100 unwanted campers have turned the area into an open sewer and harass homeowners and tourists by begging, pickpocketing and prostitution. Westminster City Council spends about £500,000 a year on a daily clean-up operation, paying to send destitute travellers home and issuing Asbos. Council workers hose down the pavement most mornings to remove human waste. Councillor Nickie Aiken, head of community protection, has written to the Romanian ambassador urging him to bring over a police task force to work with British counterparts and said a similar team that came to last year’s Olympics had proved “a highly effective deterrent”. She said: “We have deployed every option at our disposal at considerable cost to remove undesirables – beggars and street con artists – but all we have been able to do is offer a sticking plaster solution to a gaping wound of a problem. "It is a problem that continues to plague one of the city’s top tourist and business destinations as well as an area where people live.” More than 200 of 292 people arrested for begging in the area last year were from Romania. The plea comes just months before millions of Romanians and Bulgarians get access to the UK labour market when visa restrictions are dropped at the end of the year. Yesterday top detectives from Poland, Lithuania and Romania began work with 17 UK forces on a campaign codenamed Operation Trivium targeting on the-run foreign criminals.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 08:53:42 +0000
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