Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
A makeshift campsite full of homeless migrants in one of the capital’s wealthiest area has been cleared by police following a recent surge in crime.
Police stood by as the rough sleepers in Marble Arch, Mayfair were ordered to leave the Transport for London owned land.
Many of the mostly Romanian and Bulgarian campers shifted their cardboard mattresses and tents to nearby Park Lane.
It comes after a hike of reports of muggings, begging, pick pocketing, sexual assaults and anti-social behaviour in the area.
But local councillors have warned against automatically blaming the crime wave on those living in the ‘tent city’.
The campers have managed to avoid deportation thanks to a High Court ruling in 2017.
Home Office policy says deporting rough sleepers who are EU citizens is unlawful and against freedom of movement rules.
As people took their belongings away in shopping trolleys, a man named Dan was seen with a 32 inch plasma TV which he hoped to sell ‘for a few hundred pounds,’ reports the Telegraph.
He said he did not want to return to Romania, despite living with no money, food or job in the UK.
Transport for London said it made several attempts to offer alternative accommodation before resorting to the court order.
Figures from the Metropolitan Police reveal 872 violent and sexual crimes were reported in the 12 months to July – a rate of more than two a day.
There were more than 80 cases of shoplifting a week and one robbery per day on average.
Ref: Property Report
