‘My Victor is in Britain to work… then he will come home’

It lies less than an hours drive from Bran Castle, the fabled home of Vlad the Impaler, better known as Count Dracula, and is surrounded by fortified churches and hilltop castles.

Despite her slight frame, Miss Curcean has to chop wood with a large axe for a stove that provides the sole source of warmth in the home and draws water from a nearby well with a metal bucket attached to a chain. The village, which lies in a valley bounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Carpathians, has mud roads and none of the 300 houses has running water. Job opportunities are scarce. Even for those who find work, life is tough the average daily wage is the equivalent of 7.

Most of the young people in the village have gone abroad, to England or Spain or Germany you cant earn any money here, Miss Curcean said over a glass of the local firewater, a potent spirit called tuica.

A plastic Christmas tree stood on a wooden table, next to a rusting fridge in the only habitable space in the house a living room with pink painted walls.

Miss Curcean said her fianc planned to stay in Britain for at least a year in an attempt to earn the 4,000 to 5,000 they need to refurbish their modest home, with its sagging tile roof and cracked door frames. Only then can they get married and start a family.

She said he had no intention of bleeding dry Britains social security system. For his part, Mr Spirescu insisted that he was in the UK to work, not to steal.

I just want to earn enough money and then I will come back to my country, he told Adevarul (The Truth), a Romanian daily newspaper. Im not going to stay permanently, I dont want to give up my homeland for England.

The poverty on display in Pelisor and countless villages like it, explains why so many Romanians want to move to the UK and other rich nations in western Europe. Farmers till the fields with ploughs pulled by horses in rural scenes not seen in Britain since the 1950s.

Miss Curcean, who has to look after two younger siblings because her parents are separated and jobless like her, said she would leap at the chance of joining her fianc in Britain.

I would do anything, really anything, she said. As soon as I get a job offer or find an opportunity, I will go to England. Victor said to me, 'If I could bring you over here tomorrow, I would. Hed like to get into construction, its something hes good at. Her boyfriends handiwork is evident around the house a few yards away is an outside long-drop lavatory that he built, and their two dogs sleep in wooden kennels that he made.

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'My Victor is in Britain to work... then he will come home'