Fewer Poles in UK ahead of Brexit: report
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
03.12.2018 07:20
The number of Poles living in Britain has fallen in the run-up to Brexit, according to reports.
Image: Elionas2/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons
Figures from Britain’s Office for National Statistics show that some 985,000 Poles lived in Britain in June, down from 1.02 million in December last year, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.
That is the largest fall since 2004, when the British labour market opened up after the enlargement of the European Union, according to IAR.
Polish Radio cited Axel Antoni, a spokesperson for an EU citizens' group in Britain called The 3 Million, as saying that Brexit had created an atmosphere in the country which made immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe feel unwelcome.
The British statistics office said that the reasons for people leaving the country were complex and attributing them to one factor would be a simplification, IAR reported.
(pk/gs)
Source: IAR/Polish Radio