UK keeps limit on Romanian, Bulgarian workers

LONDON (Reuters) - The government said on Tuesday it would keep restrictions on the number of Romanians and Bulgarians allowed to work in Britain until the end of 2011 to protect British workers during the recession.

In each of the next two years, the nation will admit just under 25,000 low-skilled Bulgarians and Romanians to work under a quota system in agriculture and the food processing industry, Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said in a statement to parliament.

Britain imposed the limits when Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007, and renewed them in December last year under EU rules allowing it to do so for up seven years.

"Given the current labour market situation, it is important that we continue to give weight to the need to protect the interests of the resident workforce," Woolas said. "The restrictions ... will continue until the end of 2011."

The severe recession in Britain pushed up unemployment by 88,000 to 2.469 million in the three months to August, leaving the jobless rate at 7.9 percent on an international measure.

The high level of unemployment is a problem for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose party lags in the polls at most seven months before a national election.

Britain was the only big EU country to let citizens of new member states work without restriction when eight central and eastern European countries joined in 2004.

High immigration into Britain in recent years has fuelled resentment in some cities, giving a boost to the far-right British National Party, which won its first seats in the European Parliament in a June election.

EU members can limit the inflow of Bulgarian and Romanian workers until December 31, 2011, and for a further two years if lifting it would cause a "serious disturbance" to the labour market.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; editing by Tim Pearce)