The migrants who’ve lived in a car park next to B&Q for ten years
MIGRANTS have lived on a retail park for almost a decade – using dumped cars as their makeshift homes.
Their ‘car park camp’ comprises at least ten vehicles, most of which are untaxed and clearly unroadworthy.
Stationed on a road between branches of B&Q, Halfords, Pets At Home and Asda, the camp is home to around 20 Romanians who relentlessly pester shoppers for work – with some boasting they can make £250 a day on disreputable building sites.
The cars, including Citroens, Fords and Vauxhalls, mainly have British number plates and are stuffed with filthy blankets and duvets. Front seats are wrenched backwards to form makeshift beds and feature blacked-out windows designed to block out the sun. Bottles of aftershave and rolls of toilet paper are an unsavoury reminder of the deeply unhygienic situation.
But despite frequent complaints from residents, the camp has existed in the retail park in the Old Kent Road area of South London for at least eight years – with little intrusion from the authorities.
Only a small group of security guards are on hand to protect shoppers from unwanted approaches from the migrants, who patrol the nearby retail centre car park asking for work.
The guards told the Daily Mail how they are frequently forced to step in to protect unaccompanied women, and face frequent threats of violence themselves. One migrant will normally engage a potential target in conversation, before a host of others move in to ‘mob’ the vulnerable shopper and pester them for work, they said.
The Mail observed two female police officers arrive to speak to the gang after one unsavoury incident. The migrants refused to move and the police left, powerless because the group are on private property.
One guard explained: ‘We are only employed because members of the public have made numerous complaints about Romanians harassing them, saying “job, job, job”.
‘We don’t have the power to kick them out of the car park, until they are drinking or smoking or being abusive. Then we can call the police.’ He added: ‘They drink all the time, mostly on the weekends.’
The Londoner explained how the migrants now dominate one half of the car park at Peckham’s Cantium Retail Park. ‘It is basically a stand- off,’ he said. One 36-year-old woman shopper added: ‘It’s quite intimidating. They offer to carry your stuff but you don’t know who they are and they are quite persistent.’
Andre, a 29-year-old migrant, has lived in one of the battered cars for eight years, told The Sun: ‘Living in a car is not a great life, but we don’t have any choice. And it’s still better than Romania.’
Father-of-three Ioan Canalos, 44, added: ‘I do as much work as I can and send money home. I’d rather do that and sleep in a car than pay rent.’ Almost 20 per cent of rough sleepers in London are from Romania, figures reveal.
Aviva, which owns the car park, said efforts continued to resolve the issue. Southwark councillor Michael Situ said residents had complained about noise and antisocial behaviour. ‘However, this is a fluid situation with different people arriving and departing each week, and won’t be solved overnight,’ he added.
A B&Q spokesman said: ‘This ongoing situation needs resolution by all parties – the landlord and local authorities.’
‘No power to kick them out’