Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the status of immigrants from (1) Bulgaria, and (2) Romania, who arrived in the United Kingdom illegally before January 2014; and what is the total number of such cases that have been detected.

The previous Labour Government signed the EU Accession treaty with Romania and Bulgaria, which granted Romanians and Bulgarians a right of entry to the UK from 1 January 2007. From that date, Romanians and Bulgarians have been able to travel to the UK legally, though their access to the UK labour market was restricted under the transitional arrangements, which the present Government extended until 31 December 2013, the maximum possible period.