By John Stevens PUBLISHED: 18:42 EST, 31 December 2013 | UPDATED: 18:43 EST, 31 December 2013 Hundreds of thousands from outside the EU will be eligible to work in Britain from today because of a passport giveaway by Bulgaria and Romania. It will give some of the poorest in Europe the right to live and work here. Bulgaria and Romania are offering national status to minority or ethnic groups living in non-EU states including Moldova, Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey. Romania and Bulgaria have been handing out passports to thousands of non-EU citizens, allowing them to come and work in Britain now that visa restrictions are lifted
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Bulgaria and Romanian offering passports to non-EU citizens
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Romania has offered citizenship to four million Moldovans
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Meanwhile Bulgaria has handed 90,000 Macedonians passports
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All will be able to come and work in the UK under EU rules
However, many applicants do not speak @placeholder, do not have Bulgarian heritage, know nothing about the country and are motivated by the prospect of getting into the EU job market.