First Park Lane, now the Imperial War Museum... Eastern Europeans are sleeping rough next to top London tourist spot (and one hangs his coat on a peace sculpture)

Staff complain about clearing up used condoms and excrement daily

Homeless sleeping in Peace Garden opened by Dalai Lama in 1999

Includes some Romanians from controversial Park Lane gypsy camp

Many offered free one-way flights home but choose London's streets instead



Homeless Eastern Europeans have been sleeping rough for months inside the grounds of a central London memorial opened by the Dalai Lama, MailOnline can reveal.



Staff cleaning the grounds at the Imperial War Museum say every morning they remove human excrement, used condoms, beer cans and even drug paraphernalia from its Tibetan Peace Garden.

Rough sleepers even hang their clothing on the monuments officially unveiled by the Dalai Lama in 1999 and sleep on its manicured lawns and among the flower beds.



Sleeping rough: This man is among the gang of Eastern Europeans who have been spending nights in the Dalai Lama's Peace Garden in London

Waking up: A homeless man rises in the morning in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth, south London

Monument to peace: Staff in the grounds of the famous museum admit every day they must pick up filth and detritus left by people staying there

In the past year police and border agents have been forced to break up a series of swollen camps across central London where immigrants were offered free flights back to their home country.

But in the majority of cases, despite having no work, they were allowed to leave before returning days later.

Council officials and police in London blame the unwanted visitors for a surge in begging, pickpocketing, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.



A large number of Romanian gypsies stayed on Park Lane for weeks and turned the tree-lined central London road into a litter-strewn mess.



Several appear to headed to the Imperial War Museum, and staff there have been left with the sorry task of clearing up their mess.

Groundskeeper Robyn Stone, 53, said: 'They've been here a couple of months now, since the hot weather really, I've noticed they moved them on in the West End as it's been highlighted in the news, we've been getting loads of people here, Romanians in particular,' she said.



Packing up: A man folds his sleeping bag and staff say the people sleeping there disappear each morning but leave a lot of mess for them to dispose of

Covered up: One homeless person is hunched inside a sleeping bag while a passer-by wanders past in the south London museum grounds

Home: This individual sits up among the flowers of the Tibetan Peace Garden and residents say they are out of work with nowhere to go

'We always get rough sleepers here in the summer but there's a lot more of them than normal.



'In the Peace Garden there is normally six or seven, maybe even eight, most of them are inside the garden in the inner circle and then there will be two or three outside and sometimes we get them sleeping in the yard behind the cafe area.



'They jump over the wall and they've made a little tent awning in there. Also they have a bit at the back of the museum called the wild area, so it's ideal with trees, it's not unkempt but it's a wild theme so they are in there a lot.



'They are usually youngish and there's normally a couple of females that stay with them, but they look really young, perhaps only 18.'



Yesterday Robyn had to pick her way around the men as they slept in the Peace Garden, collecting their rubbish from the manicured shrubs and plants.



She said: 'We do have to clean up after them unfortunately, we've got a dedicated guy who's got a small truck called the Fido, it's all tooled up for dog poo - and human poo.



'We clear up beer cans, condoms - I found a used condom here this morning.



'These guys do not seem to use heroin, our regular guys that we have use heroin and we have to clear their needles.



'But we found a crack pipe bottle, that was unusual, last week and I associate that with these guys migrants.



'I've been here over two years and have never seen a crack pipe here ever and that was in the Peace Garden by a tree.'



In the flowers: The men and women here are from Eastern Europe, including Lithuania, Latvia and Romania

Magic moment: His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Tibetan Peace Garden, which he opened in in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum in 1999

At around eight o'clock the group packed up their sleeping bags and blankets and stashed them in bushes that lie directly in front of the museum beneath a pair of huge naval gun from First World War battleships HMS Ramillies and HMS Resolution.



'They go away during the day because they know we're going to disturb them and wake them up and then they come back later on and sit around in a circle in their gang in the peace garden and sometimes around the trees in the grounds,' Ms Stone said.



The Peace Garden lies in front of the Imperial War Museum and attracts visitors from around the world, but during the summer months it has become a sheltered spot for the men to bed down for the night causing problems for the groundskeepers.



Robyn said: 'It's not nice because, well, the clue's in the name, it's a peace garden, and that's very important. Not that anywhere else isn't important in this park, but we have people coming form Tibet you know to see what we have done here, because the Dalai Lama opened it in 1999 so it is very important.

'But if we move their stuff if they're not there, if we move their sleeping bags like we are told to some guys get angry.'



Oust: Police wake up and move on the Romanians from Park Lane in July, and staff at the Imperial War Museum say that some have headed their way

Upsetting: Large areas of grass on park Lane were strewn with rubbish, from suitcases to soiled blankets and half-eaten food, and bushes were transformed into stinking open cesspools. But three days after police removed them they came back

One of the rough sleepers, Matas Krasnichas was seen writing a letter this morning to send back to his family.



He had been staying in the gardens since losing his job nearly a month ago, where he was earning enough to send home to support his sister through university.

The 22-year-old sleeps in the grounds, but says he does not leave any mess.



He said: 'I'm from Lithuania, and have been in the park for about three weeks since I lost my job.



'I started work there five months ago when I came to England. I was told that I would get work over here so I sent my papers.'



When asked if it was official he smiled and said 'I think so'.

