I have a Romanian friend who works for a Swiss pharmaceutical company. On arrival at Heathrow on a business trip from Zurich she was asked by a 'professional' from UK Border force whether she was 'entering the UK for the purposes of prostitution'. She doesn't come here any more. our loss, not hers.
Graduate and boyfriend denied room at Holiday Inn Express because 'clerk thought she was a Romanian prostitute'
Alecsandra Puflea said she and her boyfriend were turned away by staff
She claims a worker told her: 'I'm sorry, but we don't accept Romanians'
She said police told her the hotel is screening guests under a new policy
Other Romanian women were using the rooms for prostitution, she said
Hotel spokesperson said it 'is definitely not a case of racial discrimination'
Holiday Inn Express has apologised and is now reviewing its local policy
By CHRIS KITCHING and EMILY PAYNE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:45 GMT, 22 July 2015 | UPDATED: 00:58 GMT, 23 July 2015
I'm afraid that these two accounts serve only to highlight the undercurrent of *enophobia that is growing within the UK, fueled by political parties such as UKIP, and elements of the Conservative party, along with some of the usual suspects within the print media.
Talking to people, as I do as part of my job, it is easy to detect these attitudes, with the sweeping, usually negative and often completely false claims they make regarding "foreigners" in UK.
Whilst the UK certainly does have to gurard it's borders against illegal migrants, it needs to do it in a rather more intelligent way, rather than tarring all people of certain nationalities with a single brush.