YUSUFF ALI Sunday, March 21 2010

As the countries of Eastern Europe joined the European Union (EU), their citizens became eligible to travel, live and work freely in other member countries. This has put a heavy burden on the more affluent countries such as France, Germany and, of course, Britain.

Many of these East Europeans have come to Britain over the past few years, looking for a better life and most have been making a decent contribution to their adopted homeland. Those from Poland, in particular, have been welcomed by many because, in the main, they are not workshy and they charge very competitive rates for their labour.

Recently, however, things seemed to have got a bit out of hand. Take the story of one company, for example, which has been advertising for Polish-speaking staff only. The story highlights a trend in which British workers are routinely being denied jobs in factories and food processing firms in favour of foreign applicants.

The effective ban on British workers in the case I quoted was defended by managers at the cooked meat supplier concerned on grounds that all health and safety training at the plant was carried out in Polish. The company, which employs 600 people, supplies several supermarket chains and has an annual turnover of more than £140 million.

Its advertisement was sent to hundreds of potential applicants on the books of the employment agency, OSR Recruitment. It said: “Applicants must speak Polish. Please call as soon as possible.” The firm’s chief executive, Max Hilliard, said the ad resulted from a breakdown in communications between the company and OSR.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has found separately that in many firms, places are being handed out to migrant workers because they are easier to exploit and often suffer terrible pay and working conditions. They are also favoured over home-grown applicants because they are considered to be harder working and less likely to complain.

A report by the Commission into the meat and poultry processing industry said that most recruitment agencies had experience of firms breaching the Race Relations Act in asking for workers from specific countries. A third also admitted acting unlawfully by supplying workers based on what nationality they thought the firm would prefer.

The Commission spoke to 260 workers as well as representatives of 190 meat and poultry processing plants and 130 recruitment agencies for its report. It said it would be writing to the firm involved in the Polish-only ad, asking it to respond to the allegations against it and to confirm that it will not discriminate against British or any other workers.

Within 24 hours of this story breaking, the Poles were making headlines again for another controversial reason. This time, outrage was sparked by posters advising Polish women to fly to Britain for free abortions on the National Health Service (NHS). The posters urged women to take advantage of EU rules allowing Poles free medical care in the UK.

The posters also tell them that it is cheaper to fly to the UK to end an unwanted pregnancy than to pay for an illegal backstreet termination in Poland. The ads, which are being promoted by a Polish feminist group, were condemned for encouraging “abortion tourism” and piling pressure on the already hard-pressed NHS.

A source in Poland has said thousands of Polish women already flee the strict anti-abortion laws in the Roman Catholic country every year to undergo termination procedures in the UK. This has led critics to warn that Britain is at risk of becoming the abortion capital of Europe.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the think-tank Migration Watch, said: “We should insist that the Polish Government take action to have the posters removed.” He said Britain’s NHS was in danger of becoming a free international health service. He called for NHS clinics to make sure that those who turn up for free treatment are entitled to it.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “The NHS is provided primarily for the benefit of people lawfully resident in the UK. We do, however, exempt from charge residents of some countries for some types of treatment when they visit the UK. He said the arrangement was reciprocal and British citizens could receive similar benefits abroad.

But Joyce Robbins, of Patient Concern, said: “When you consider the mess the NHS is in at the moment, we can’t afford to treat the people who have been paying into it all their lives, let alone women from abroad who want to use it to get rid of unwanted pregnancies.”

Kevin Barron, chairman of the House of Commons health select committee, said: “The NHS should not be funding terminations for Polish women. This would be against all the regulations and if a woman who is not British attempted to get a termination here, I would hope they would be turned away.”

He added: “I have heard that many women from southern Ireland (Irish Republic) also come here for that purpose but, to my knowledge, it is to visit private clinics and not the NHS.” Like Poland, the Irish Republic too is a mainly Roman Catholic country. The Pope is due to visit the UK soon. Perhaps, the matter will be raised with him during his stay here.