British PM calls for less freedom of movement in EU

British Prime Minister David Cameron has called for less freedom of movement in the European Union, while restricting benefits for immigrants from new EU member countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In a signed article carried on the Financial Times on Wednesday, the prime minister said that Britain would work with others "to return the concept, a central principle of the EU, to a more sensible basis." He said there are now one million people from central and eastern Europe, witnessing the biggest migration in Europe outside wartime. Currently, there are large numbers of people from Eastern Europe living in Britain as EU nationals. Starting from January 1, 2014 when Romania and Bulgaria will formally become members of EU, the public fears that big influx of immigrants from the two countries will enter Britain next year. One of the failures in immigration policy was linked to welfare and education, said Cameron, adding, "If it does not pay to work, or if British people lack skills, that creates a huge space in our labor market for people from overseas to fill." He said that Britain is changing the rules so that no one can come to the country and expect to get out of work benefits immediately. Cameron announced a series of measures on immigrants, including new migrants not getting out-of-work benefits for the first three months; payments being stopped after six months unless the claimant has a "genuine" chance of a job; new migrants not being able to claim housing benefit immediately; deportation of those caught begging or sleeping rough, with no return within a year; and quadrupling fines for employers not paying the minimum wage. "We need to face the fact that free movement has become a trigger for vast population movements caused by huge disparities in income," he said in the article. "It is time for a new settlement which recognizes that free movement is a central principle of the EU, but it cannot be a completely unqualified one," he said. "Britain is not acting alone in taking these steps. Other countries such as the Netherlands already impose a three-month residence requirement before you can access benefits such as job seekers' allowance."