On immigration patrol with British police in Romania 16 December 2013 Last updated at 05:39 British police are visiting Romania to try to discourage residents from moving to the UK without guaranteed work At the end of December, temporary work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians who come to the UK are being lifted, allowing them the same benefits and NHS care as other EU citizens. Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon has travelled to Romania with British police who hope to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work. Very good in Cricklewood. A remote village in the Carpathian mountains is a strange place to hear someone using London slang. Apata might look like any other rural, tranquil town in Romania but this one has a secret. And the British police have come all this way to try to unlock it. I have travelled here with Chief Superintendent Adrian Usher. He polices Barnet in north London, home to more Romanians than anywhere else in the UK other than Newham, many of them from the Roma ethnic minority. When a camp of Romanian squatters were evicted from Hendon football club in June, 65 out of the 68 people they found sleeping in makeshift shelters were from this village. As if to illustrate the depth of the connection between Apata and the UK, one young girl runs up to me rabbiting English phrases she has picked up from villagers who have returned from London. Chief Supt Usher wants to discourage Romanians from moving to Britain without guaranteed work. "If you come to the UK without a named job to go to, then you're at really increased risk of being exploited or being the victim or perpetrator of crime," he told a group of villagers. He said the welfare of Romanians who migrate to London was just as important a concern as that of Londoners themselves. I'm not here to comment on any particular issues at all. We're here to protect all the residents of London and that includes those people who come to London looking for work. Grim camps One resident, who told us his name was Alexandru, said as many as 400 villagers might have left for London already. Alexandru said his cousin was the first to leave for London and that he followed him after he recommended moving there. Alexandru said he left because there is so little work in Romania. He said villagers were prepared to live in grim camps in the UK for the chance of a foothold in the UK construction black market. He showed me the cooker he had been able to afford to buy following his time spent working in London. Alexandru plans to return to Cricklewood in north London in the New Year. It is an area where hundreds of Romanians are part of a growing underclass of migrants. Despite good intentions, many I met when I travelled there could easily become a burden on the UK taxpayer. No money left Another immigrant, called Alex, told me he was from a small, mainly Roma village, over the hill from Apata. He said he had been working on the construction black market in Cricklewood for a few months. He spoke no English, had no qualifications and wants his wife and children to join him from Romania. He said he had struggled to make ends meet in his time in London. "I worked for three days on someone's property," he said. They drove me far away; I didn't even know where I was or how to come back. He took me with his car. After the work finished I was told to wait at home, he was going to pick me up the following day. I waited for two or three days and I tried to call but when no one answered. I had no money left and I didn't have anyone to borrow money from. Alex was never paid. He has been forced to live in a shared room because paid work has been intermittent. He plans to join the formal job market in January, when temporary work restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians who come to the UK are being lifted. Despite what appear major difficulties in gaining employment, he is confident he can make things work. I would bring my family here. I don't think it would be too difficult to look after them. I would rent two rooms and a kitchen if everything was convenient. Panorama: The Romanians are Coming?, BBC One, Monday 16 December at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.