The UK Home Office has published new figures showing a sharp rise in the number of work applications from countries that joined the European Union in May last year.
In total, 133,000 applications were handed in by the end of 2004 from the eight new Eastern European EU member states, according to statistics reported in UK media.
Applications from Malta and Cyprus were not included in this figure.
The number of work permit applications has turned out to be much higher than previous government estimations predicting that enlargement would result in just 5,000 to 13,000 applications.
UK Independence Party MEP, Nigel Farage, pointed out that the government had made a 1,000 per cent miscalculation.
The Home Office said that about 40% of those seeking a work permit were already in Britain and had used the worker registration scheme to legitimise their status, according to the Guardian.
While more people applied for a work permits in the UK in 2004, the number of people arriving in Britain and claiming asylum dropped sharply to 40,200.
This was down from a peak of more than 110,000 two years earlier.
By: N. Peter Kramer
