Romanian ambassador attacks UKIP

The Romanian ambassador to the UK has accused UKIP of stirring up racial hatred against Romanians by opposing the impending mass immigration of Romanians and Bulgarians at the end of this year and warning of the dangers of Romanian organised crime gangs.

Ion Jinga says that UKIP's campaign in Eastleigh caused two Romanians in Brighton to be assaulted and that Romanian doctors are being interrogated by patients about their ethnic origin.  All of which is frankly ridiculous.

People will, sadly, always be at risk of abuse or violence on the basis of the race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or some other defining characteristic and if someone has such a propensity to violence that they would attack someone for "having an Eastern European accent" then an election campaign in a town 70 miles away is that includes a pledge to control mass immigration is unlikely to be the cause of them assaulting a Romanian.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that all Romanians are criminals because clearly they're not but there is a serious problem with organised crime gangs in Romania and with Romanian organised crime gangs throughout Europe and the police statistics suggest that a large number of the Romanians that have moved to the UK thus far are criminals.  There are 80,000 Romanians in the UK and there have been 27,500 arrests of Romanians in London alone in the last 5 years.

But regardless of whether the inevitable mass influx of Romanians and Bulgarians at the end of this year brings more serious organised crime gangs with it or not, there aren't enough jobs and houses to go around the people already living here so the idea of allowing unlimited numbers of people from the poorest countries in the EU to move here is criminally stupid.