The flood of immigrants that failed to materialise

The cameras were ready. Reporters stood poised to intercept the vanguard of Britain's latest invasion from eastern Europe. The only thing missing was the migrants.

The feared flood of workers from Bulgaria and Romania failed to materialise at Heathrow airport yesterday as citizens of the European Union's two newest member states appeared to prefer to stay at home.

Flights arriving at terminal one from Bucharest yesterday carried visitors from the Indian sub-continent and crestfallen representatives of certain newspapers who had been sent to the Romanian capital to chronicle the expected influx, only to find no takers. As one photographer for a red-top newspaper put it: "Complete waste of time. No one wanted to fly. We even offered to help with the fare."

The slow start to what one campaign group has said it expects to be a wave of 180,000 UK-bound Romanians and Bulgarians in 2007 was greeted by some as proof that the flood - according to some more alarmist reports likely to include HIV-infected teenagers, Bulgarian gangsters and child thieves - is going to be more of a trickle. The Government is offering 22,000 work permits to citizens from both countries after refusing to grant an unrestricted right to work in the UK following the arrival of 600,000 migrant workers from new EU members such as Poland in 2004. The Home Office has refused to give a projection of how Romanian and Bulgarian workers it expects.

But Simona Tatulescu, a Romanian tax expert who arrived in Britain in 2002 and works as a consultant advising new migrants, said: "When people return to their offices this week expecting to see lots of Romanian plasterers or Bulgarian cleaners, they will be disappointed.

"The people who want to come here want a better life and they want to achieve it by setting up their own business or working for themselves. They don't want to come here to live on benefit and be miserable.

"If they come to do a more basic job, such as agricultural work, then they are not here to stay. They are fulfilling a demand to do very hard physical work and then returning home."

The high cost of flying from Bulgaria and Romania, where the average wage is about £150 per month, as well as the celebration of the Orthodox Christmas this week means that many of those planning to come to Britain will not travel until mid-January.

A new budget airline, Wizz Air, starts direct flights from Bucharest to Luton on 15 January with its cheapest fare costing £35. Travel by coach from Bucharest and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, which takes up to three days, is cheaper.

Among those who have already arrived, there was a mixture of enthusiasm for the higher wages in Britain and bemusement over the concerns in their host country at their arrival. The Government launched an advertising campaign in Romania and Bulgaria before Christmas warning that anyone wanting to come to the UK would need a work permit and those breaking the rule face a £1,000 fine.

Ion Gabriel, 35, had given up his job in Bucharest as an insurance clerk to work on a flower farm in Surrey.

He said: "I've come to work for six months. I'm very happy - the work will be hard but the money will be good. I will then go back to university in Bucharest. Romania is my home, I don't want to stay in Britain.

"What is so wrong with people like me coming here to work? It is work that the British don't want to do."

It is a question which Britain's horticulturists, who contribute £1.76bn a year to the economy, are also asking.

Under new rules brought in by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a long-standing permit scheme for agricultural workers must give 40 per cent of its places to Bulgarian and Romanian citizens. From next year, all 16,500 places on the seasonal agricultural workers' schemes must be first offered to Bulgarians and Romanians.

But critics say that it is unclear whether there are enough Bulgarians or Romanians who want to come to Britain to meet the demand.

Martin Howarth, director of policy for the National Farmers' Union, said: "The new rules have thrown a system that worked extremely well into chaos. Last year, there were dramatically fewer Bulgarian and Romanian workers than the 40 per cent mark.

"Farmers are scratching their heads about what will happen when that quota reaches 100 per cent. It is a complete mess."