IMMIGRANTS FROM EASTERN EUROPE who are refused social welfare payments when they arrive in London have become so poor that they live off barbecued rats and drink alcoholic handwash.

The Guardian reports that a local homeless charity had come across groups of homeless Polish people in the north of London, who had resorted to catching and cooking rats not realising how toxic the rats are.

“We have to explain to them that unlike the rats back home, in London they would be full of poison. The health risks are enormous,” said Jeremy Swain, CEO of Thames Reach.

His colleague, Megan Stewart, who was part of an outreach team that visited one outreach camp housing about half-a-dozen Poles, said she had found people eating cooked rats – either toasted over a fire, or stewed in a pot – on each of her three visits

“It was the worst thing I had seen in three decades of working with the homeless,” she said.

The immigrants are unable to claim allowances from the British state because of rules introduced in the wake of EU expansion in 2004. Mindful of the number of immigrants likely to travel to London to see solace from a stronger economy – and a more generous welfare system – Britain only offers housing benefits to people from the twelve new EU entrants if they have worked in the country for twelve months or more.

Because many simply cannot find jobs – firstly because of the supply of qualified graduates, and now because of the shortage of employment – they have been forced onto the streets and are left open to explotation.

Some of the homeless men told the Guardian they had been employed to unload off-licence deliveries and were paid in bottles of cider containing 22 units of alcohol – more than the recommended weekly limit.

As a result, alcoholism has become rampant – with many stealing handwash from hospitals, which contains about 70% alcohol. Swain said the charity had recovered about four bodies a year, of immigrants who had not watered down the fluid to ingestible quality.