Migrant alert over euro crisis

THE Home Secretary Theresa May said yesterday that the government is looking at imposing emergency immigration controls to deal with a possible influx of migrants from Greece and other European Union countries in response to the crisis in the euro.

May confirmed the Home Office is drawing up contingency plans and that “work is ongoing” to cope with large movements of people in the event of the break-up of the single currency zone.

The move comes amid fears that millions could lose their jobs and may look for work abroad if Greece leaves the euro. There are concerns, too, that the contagion could spread to other weak Eurozone countries. In a newspaper interview, May said the government was examining “trends” to see whether immigration was rising from countries with stricken economies.

“As in every part of government, it is right that we do some contingency planning on this and that is work that is ongoing,” she said. The crisis could spread quickly to countries such as Spain, Ireland and Portugal, although Britain is regarded as a safe haven because it is outside the single currency.

In normal circumstances, the government’s hands are tied because EU nationals, with the exception of new members such as Romania and Bulgaria, can work anywhere in the single market.

She said there was no evidence of increased migration at present but added that it was “difficult to say how it is going to develop in coming weeks”.

A number of European governments introduced temporary immigration controls when countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic joined the EU, in an attempt to stop an influx of workers.

France also threatened to reintroduce passport controls at the Italian border during the Arab Spring following an influx of Libyan and Tunisian refugees.

Discussing her attitude to those people already living in Britain illegally, May said: “The aim is to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.

“What we don’t want is a situation where people think that they can come here and overstay because they’re able to access everything they need.”

Meanwhile, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), yesterday took an uncompromising line with Greece, saying it was time for it to pay its debts.

In a newspaper interview, the managing director of the IMF said she had more sympathy with children in Africa than those in Greece, where people were “trying to escape tax all the time”.

Asked whether she worried about the economic and social impact of austerity in the Mediterranean country, she said: “No, I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens.”