London Metropolitan Police Puts up Warning Sign in Romanian

For the first time, the Metropolitan Police in London put up a sign written in Romanian, which is the language the pickpockets operating in Covent Garden would understand.

Covent Garden, one of the busiest shopping areas in London, has become such a lucrative place for unscrupulous foreigners that have been coming to the city. In an effort to deter these group of pickpockets, who have been identified to be from Romania, the police have put up warning signs around the shopping center.

One of the signs reads, “Ofiteri de politie in civil opereaza in aceasta zona,” translatedas, “plainclothes police officers operate in this area.” The police have decided to put up the warning signs in an effort to deter pickpockets. But why use the Romanian language? Data figures have identified that more than half of the pickpockets caught by the police around the Tube this year came from Romania.

Influx of Romanians

There had been an influx of Romanians coming to Britain. With the majority of them without jobs and homes, they have turned to fraud, pickpocketing and begging to make a living. Most of them have descended in London and made Hyde Park Corner, an affluent area just a mile away from Covent Garden their home.

According to Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster, Mark Field, it is essential that people become aware that unscrupulous activities such as theseare not welcome in Britain. He does not discount the fact that there is a large group of Romanians that has come to the country to look for work and willing to contribute to the economy of the UK, but he emphasized that the minority who came to Britain to engage in thievery must be removed.

Christmas shopping rush

Things have turned frenetic in Covent Garden due to the thousands of people rushing to finish their Christmas shopping. Instead of telling shoppers to beware of pickpockets and other petty thieves, they have decided to dissuade the thieves themselves who are planning to target these large crowds of Christmas shoppers by giving them fair warning.

Deal with the problems before they arise

There had been no confirmation as to which languages these signs were written or the actual number of signs that had been put up. Hyde Park Safer Neighborhood Ward Panel chairman Jack Gordon welcomed the signs. He said that thievery has been affecting not only the residents but also trade and tourism in the area since it is a crime that is quite difficult to handle. He understood that it is easier to deter a crime from occurring instead of dealing with it later.

Lifting of migration restrictions

There had been restrictions on Romanian migration to the UK but these have been lifted by the EU in January. Since then the presence of homeless migrants from Romania had tripled, and they have opted to stay in some of the most affluent areas in the capital.

Some officials scoffed at the warnings about a rise in migration from Eastern Europe. The earlier official report revealed that there had actually been a drop in the migration figures since the lifting of the ban. However the new official report, which will include the rest of the year, is yet to be released but it is expected that there will be a remarkable increase in the numbers.

Image credit: Covent Garden, Flickr photo by Chris Sampson under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.