THE first of thousands of Bulgarians and Romanians expected to enter the UK over the next year have arrived at Heathrow and are heading for flower picking jobs around Camborne.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU at midnight on New Year's Eve and by New Year's Day the first immigrant workers were arriving in Britain.

A group of students on one of the first flights from the Bulgarian capital Sofia told the media at Heathrow that they were heading for a farm in Camborne to pick flowers.

The workers get paid around £5 for each box of flowers. With it taking around 80 bunches of flowers to fill a box it can sometimes take a whole morning just to earn the fiver.

Under new rules bought in by the UK, the two new EU members will have to endure extra work restrictions compared to other EU citizens.

Some commentators claim that up to 180,000 immigrants could arrive in this country just this year with many taking work in Britain because they can earn more money here than they can in their home countries.

They will join Poles, Russians and Lithuanians who already work on the flower farms in Kerrier. The students say they are here to pay for college fees in their own country and only plan to stay for six months. Others say they would eventually like to settle in the UK permanently.

Low skilled workers from the two countries can only be employed on existing quota-based schemes in the agriculture and food processing industries. Skilled workers, students or the self-employed can continue to work if they get a work permit under the "highly skilled migrant programme."

Those who break the rules can be given on the spot fines of £1,000 while employers can be fined up to £5,000 for allowing law-breaking to go on.