The Romanian citizens have become the most common non-British residents living in London, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and quoted by RFI Romania.

The number of Romanian citizens living in the British capital surpassed that of Poles. According to ONS data for the period January 1 – December 31, 2018, there were 148,000 Romanian citizens and 147,000 Poles living in London. However, the estimated number of Romanians living in the British capital has been decreasing slightly, from 153,000 in the period July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018, RFI Romania informed.

The turnout at the European elections comes to support these figures. According to data from the Romanian Central Electoral Bureau, three polling stations in London registered the highest number of Romanian voters on May 26, when Romania organized the elections for the European Parliament. A total of 2,577 Romanians voted at the polling station in Brent, 2,402 voted in Harrow, and 2,354 managed to vote at the polling station in Barking.

Endless queues formed across Europe at the polling stations the Romanian authorities organized abroad for the European elections, including at those in London, and many Romanian voters had to spend up to 9-10 hours in line to vote. However, tens of thousands didn’t get to vote anyway, and this caused a big scandal. The Romanian foreign affairs minister apologized for the situation and said he ordered an investigation in the countries where “regrettable situations" happened. Here's an image from a polling station in London:

The overall number of Romanian citizens living in the UK decreased from 433,000 to 415,000. The number of Poles living in UK is much higher – 832,000.

newsroom@romania-insider.com

(Opening photo source: Pixabay.com)