Migrant Roma people in Helsinki collect empty bottles and beg, trying to evade interference from police

Roma say their earnings have fallen off sharply

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On Tuesday, the situation was pretty chaotic in the yard of Sosiaalikeskus Satama (”Harbour Social Centre”), a new social centre in Helsinki’s district of Verkkosaari.
      Garbage and ashes from campfires were left lying on the ground just like in the yard of Liekkihotelli, a notorious shelter for drunks and derelicts that operated in Helsinki’s Ruoholahti as late as in the 1970s.
      Sofas, chairs, and tables had been carried out, seating a couple of dozen Roma.
      Cars arrived and departed. The actual occupiers of the buildings - social centre people - were nowhere to be seen.
     
What are you up to here?
      ”We beg, collect empty bottles for the deposit money, and sell flowers and hats”, reported Oradia Miclescu.
      She comes from a Roma village in the Craiova area, about 200 kilometres from the capital Bucharest. She says she has been in Finland for two months, like her entire family: women, men, children at least in three generations.
      ”We all belong to the same family!” Miclescu confirmed.
      ”We hope that we will get work and will be able to stay in Finland”, she added.
     
The predominant number of Roma at the camp has made some citizens passing by suspect that the Roma have actually captured the building from its original occupiers.
      According to Katja Tuominen, a member of the Free Movement network, this is not true. The social centre people are on summer vacations and travelling, and the Roma have the keys to the building’s sanitary, washing, and cooking premises.
      ”We are renting the building from the City of Helsinki’s Youth Department, and the Roma have our permission to stay there”, Tuominen reported over the phone on Tuesday.
      Oradia Miclescu, 40, complained that the earnings of the Roma staying in Helsinki have recently declined appreciably. She blames the fall on the police, who are turning them away from the places where they sell flowers. They say that the police also visit their camp ”two to three times a day”.
     
Recently Roma and Romanians have made headlines hereabouts, as they have been suspected of thefts and petty pilfering and remanded in custody.
      Moreover, the Helsinki police have conducted raids on the Roma begging on the streets, accusing them of disturbing and aggressive behaviour, which is forbidden in Finland under the Public Order Act.
      ”Our daily earnings have dropped to 10 to 20 euros. We are not able to put aside any money and can no longer send anything home to Romania”, Miclescu complained.
      ”We have not done anything wrong. The police have accused us for no reason at all. Some of us have been kept in jail for three days and then released without charges”, Miclescu continued.
     
According to Miclescu, she has only ”a tent, three children, and no husband”.
      The family left Romania for the Nordic region a couple of months ago, after seasonal work could no longer be found in the Craiova area.
      Moreover, clothes were no longer in demand in bazaars. ”Romanians no longer buy them”.
      The funds for the journey were borrowed. Unlike some Roma who have got into trouble because of their debts, the family has been able to repay their loan, Miclescu said .
      All they need now is work.
     
When asked about the ability to read and write, a number of people raised their hands bravely. However, it is not adequate in the Nordic labour market, if these people do not have adequate language skills, competence and training.
      Ion Miu, 39, does not understand this. ”I have an AB driving licence. I could work as a driver”, he suggested.
     
Two young men, Denis Miclescu, 18, and Cristian Filip, 19, also gave assurances that they would be willing to find employment.
      ”Any kind of work would be all right. In Portugal I worked on a construction site”, Filip reported with pride.
      Dorina Sandu, 40, a mother of six children, comes from the city of Tirgu Jiu in Southwestern Romania. She says that her most recent employment was in Italy, where she worked as a chef for a year. She says she could cook any kind of food, including pasta and pizza. There just are no jobs available where she comes from.
      ”All factories were sold to the French. We were evicted. The houses remained there”, Sandu reported.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki to launch campaign to discourage giving money to beggars (19.3.2008)
  Finn working with Roma in Romania does not expect flood of beggars in Helsinki (19.2.2008)
  Helsinki sends beggar mothers back to Romania on child welfare grounds (11.2.2008)
  Migrant Roma beggars in centre of Helsinki live in tents under bridge (5.2.2008)
  Majority of residents in Helsinki region want to ban begging (7.1.2008)
  Beggars on their knees cause consternation on Helsinki streets (23.10.2007)

See also:
  Helsinki residents say beggars more assertive than before (19.5.2009)

Links:
  Sosiaalikeskus Satama (Harbour Social Centre) (Wikipedia)
  Free Movement network

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