Dateline: Oct 22

This week, Dateline looks at the rise in Eastern Europeans being homeless on the streets of London.

Homeless people have long been a sad but familiar sight in London, but the opening up of Europe’s borders is creating a new wave of poverty on the streets.

Dateline’s Evan Williams reports from London and finds a startling contrast between the high-class boutiques and luxury car showrooms of the city’s West End streets, and the destitute living in their doorways.

It’s estimated that a third of the city’s homeless are now from eastern European countries like Romania, drawn to London by the prospects of a better life, but often exploited and left penniless without the documents needed to find work.

William’s interview with the Head of Westminster Council’s rough sleepers program reveals that it is not just the volume of migrants sleeping in the heart of commercial London that is the council’s concern, but also the waste and faecal matter they’re leaving behind.

Elsewhere in the UK, Williams report reveals that migrants are cramming themselves into unsafe accommodation, and concealed garden sheds, with the authorities using sophisticated thermal imaging technology to find them.

As in Australia, migration is a hot topic in UK politics with Eastern Europeans being blamed for an increase in crime and economic problems. While many European migrants get jobs, build businesses, and pay their taxes, the rise in homeless migrants is fuelling anti-immigration and anti-EU sentiment.

Tuesday’s Dateline highlights the options for Britain in solving their migrant misery and exposes how these homeless newcomers are the visible price for Britain’s membership of the EU. The full political impact is yet to be felt.

9.30pm Tuesday October 22 on SBS ONE.