The Independent's Selective Truths on Immigration

The Independent yesterday ran a front-page story which supposedly refuted the bogus claims of immigration scare-mongerers, for example:

"Claim: Mafia chiefs in Bulgaria are plotting to flood Britain with heroin, prostitutes and guns when they join the EU in January.

Reality: The Centre for the Study of Democracy, a Sofia-based think-tank, found the crime rate in Bulgaria was lower than the European average with crime rates falling by half between 2001 and 2004. It is now safer than Denmark and Australia."

Hmmmm, obviously immigration from a country with such a dramatically falling crime-rate could pose us no threat. Wonder what could have caused Bulgaria's crime-rate to halve in the space of three years though?

Scott Burgess discovers the explanation in a Sofia news report on the study cited by the Independent, which states that a chief factor contributing to the decline is "emigration of many criminals to the EU after the establishment of a visa-free regime with most European countries".