Fewer East Europeans in Britain

LONDON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- The number of East Europeans who have moved to Britain since their countries joined the European Union is less than previously thought, new figures show.

About 380,000 people have registered for national insurance, The Independent reports. The Home Office had previously estimated that 600,000 people had come to Britain to work or study.

"We have always said that the 600,000 figure was too high, because it only counts the number who have come in; it does not allow for those who have come in, gone away, and come back," said Richard Exell, a labor market specialist with the Trade Union Council. "There has never been 600,000 people from eastern Europe working here."

Damian Green, the Conservative Party spokesman on immigration, put a darker spin on the numbers. He suggested the "cowboy sector" -- immigrants working without registering -- is larger than the government realized.

The influx of Eastern Europeans into Western Europe since 2004 has been so large that most countries banned unfettered immigration from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU Jan. 1.