Cops break up makeshift car camp eastern European migrants have called home for TEN years
Untaxed cars were towed and anyone in the country illegally will be deported
A camp of migrants living in abandoned, untaxed cars in a retail park has been cleared by police after shoppers complained about being harassed by the men for jobs.
All vehicles without taxation were removed and anyone found to be in the country illegally will face deportation.
A shopper said: "It’s quite intimidating. They offer to carry your stuff but you don’t know who they are and they are quite persistent."
The squalid conditions had sparked health and safety concerns for nearly a decade but action could not be taken as they were parked on private land.
One security guard told the Daily Mail: "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."
Local residents around the site between a McDonald's and Asda off the Old Kent Road, South London have been complaining about the makeshift camp for at least eight years but the authorities only took action when the camp was exposed by the Press earlier this month.
More than ten dumped vehicles were towed away by Scotland Yard officers, working alongside Southwark Council and the Home Office to clear the site.
Andre, 29, has lived at the site for eight years said: "Living in a car is not a great life, but we don't have any choice. And it's still better than Romania."
Other migrants at the camp said they would rather not have to pay rent so they have more money to send back to their families in Eastern Europe.
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