Wanted: Polish Muslim butchers
2006-01-04 14:59
Warsaw - After dentists, nurses, bus drivers, catering workers and handful of plumbers, Britain is now turning to fill another gap in its market. Muslim halal butchers are being requested from Poland, said an ad posted in Poland.
The ad, published on the website of Poland's Association of Muslims and in the press in the northeastern Bialystok region, home to a sizeable Muslim community in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Poland, was seeking to recruit "Muslims... who pray five times a day and adhere to the principles of halal cuisine, with no pork or alcoholic beverages".
They were needed to work in Muslim butchers' shops in Britain "for 40 to 60 hours a week for a wage of £5 to £7 per hour, depending on experience".
Neither the Polish nor British bureaus of the Polco job agency which posted the ad would comment to on where the jobs were based, whether any applications had been received and what benefits were on offer to successful applicants.
Poles flock to Britain
Britain was one of only three older EU members that fully opened their job markets to workers from new member states in the former communist bloc.
More than 290nbsp;000 eastern Europeans have applied to work in Britain since their countries joined the European Union in May 2004 according to figures published in November by the British government.
Most applicants were from Poland, accounting for 58% of the total.
Poland's Muslim community numbers between 20nbsp;000 and 25nbsp;000 out of a total population of around 38m.
Around one-quarter of Polish Muslims are descendants of Tatars who fled the Mongol warrior Genghis Kahn over 600 years ago, many settling in Poland's Bialystok region, near the border with Belarus.
- SAPA