Interior Minister considers outright ban on begging

Holmlund sees need to toughen legislation

Anne Holmlund

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Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (Nat. Coalition Party) is taking a tougher stance on public begging. In Holmlund’s view, it is important to examine quickly how begging might be banned completely through legislation.
      A working group set up to deal with the issue made a number of recommendations in 2008, but fell short of making it illegal to panhandle on the streets.
      “However, now it seems that we also need legislative changes”, Holmlund said while addressing a group of high-ranking officers of the Helsinki Police at a gathering in Siuntio.
     
“Begging is not illegal under current legislation. However, it is possible to intervene if it causes a disturbance. Begging can involve issues such as the exploitation of children or characteristics linked with human trafficking when people are forced to beg. In such cases the matter is much more serious”, Holmlund observed.
      According to the Ministry of the Interior, begging has become more aggressive than before, and it involves more criminal phenomena than it used to.
     
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has examined the backgrounds of beggars who have come to Finland in 2009, and noted that there are indications of trafficking in humans in connection with beggars who came from Romania.
      Work on a possible ban on begging has been launched at the Ministry of the Interior. According to State Secretary Antti Pelttari, the aim would not be to punish the individual person who begs, but rather to fight against the crime that is linked with organised begging.
      “We are looking for ways to deal with the groups that are lurking in the background”, Pelttari says.
     
Beggars began appearing on the streets of Helsinki and other Finnish cities at the beginning of 2007 when Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, and the issue has seldom been out of the headlines in the capital ever since.
      A good many of those involved are Roma who have sought asylum here and are begging while they await a ruling on their asylum applications.
      The requests have been systematically refused, since the countries they come from are member-states of the European Union, and are considered safe countries of origin.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Roma beggars removed from illegal makeshift camp (28.10.2009)
  Helsinki residents say beggars more assertive than before (19.5.2009)
  Migrant Roma beggars in centre of Helsinki live in tents under bridge (5.2.2008)

See also:
  Sharp increase in asylum seekers from Bulgaria (14.1.2010)

Helsingin Sanomat