After pitching up the tent a month ago in woods on Orchard Brae, their makeshift home has now come under a string of attacks. Youths have repeatedly trashed the campsite, stealing their belongings, and cutting holes and daubing racist graffiti on the tent.
But incredibly, the friends have all pledged to stay in the Capital despite their difficulties in finding jobs and the persistent harassment.
One of the campers, Dariusz Serafinski, who moved to Edinburgh from Poland seven months ago, said: "When I first came to Edinburgh, I was staying at the home of my friend's uncle while I looked for work. But it has taken so long and been so difficult that last month myself and three friends decided to pool our benefits and scrape together enough money to buy a five-man tent while we kept looking.
"The police knew about us living here and they said we were not breaking the law and could stay as long as we want.
"When I was in Warsaw, I decided I wanted to move out from my parent's house and strike out on my own. I was wondering where to go and a friend of mine said Edinburgh was really lovely and the people were very friendly.
"I can't understand how difficult it has been to get work, though. There seems to be a lot of jobs out there. It is not easy, but we'll keep trying."
The 25-year-old has been living rough with his friends, three men aged, 25, 30 and 35, while sending out hundreds of CVs to firms, and visiting the Job Centre two or three times a week to search for vacancies.
The thugs have targeted their campsite on five occasions, including pulling down their tent and wrecking their belongings.Mr Serafinski said: "We spend most of the day going from place to place to put in job applications. That means we can't always have someone staying at the tent to make sure it is not vandalised.
"We repaired the holes in our tent with tape but they returned on Thursday and set about destroying our belongings yet again. This time they spread litter and food all over the inside of the tent, and put most of our belongings in the middle of the tent and squirted tomato ketchup and mayonnaise all over our belongings.
"They wrote "Polish *****!" on the side of our tent with mayonnaise sauce, basically leaving our only shelter un-inhabitable."
He added: "We're not looking forward to the colder weather but we are prepared. Hopefully we may find somewhere else before then.
We still want to stay here and find jobs."
A police spokesman said: "Officers are investigating after a tent in Orchard Brae was vandalised with graffiti of a racist nature. Anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the area is asked to contact police. Lothian and Borders Police treat all hate crime incidents as an operational priority ensuring that they are thoroughly investigated."
A council spokesman said racist attacks could not be condoned but encouraged the men to ask for help with accommodation, and added: "A range of services are provided by the council and their partners to ensure no one needs to sleep rough. In the first instance these young men should contact the council."
News.Scotsman
