NEWS ANALYSIS: Locking up criminals bringing Roma beggars into Finland didn't change a thing

”Next summer will see children doped with cough medicines.”

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By Kimmo Oksanen
     
      A criminal gang with involvement in trafficking people was rounded up in Birchis, in Romania.
      The Roma gang had even organised the entry into Finland of some Roma beggars.
      The ringleaders of the gang were found to have houses, cars, gold, and cash.
      The media wrote reports, and people clapped their hands.
      But in the words of Mauri Ojala, a Finn who has collected five truckloads of material aid for Romania during the current year alone:”It will take less than two weeks before another even more resourceful gang is already planning its strategy”.
     
Mauri Ojala has lived in the Transylvania region of Romania for many years, helping the villagers build houses.
      After having looked around in Helsinki, Ojala says:”A boss has turned up all right, going around and observing what others [beggars] are doing”.
      Ojala says that it would be no surprise if the corrupt civil servants in Romania had received their share of the confiscated property following the detainment of the gang in Birchis.
      Standard operating procedure in the country?
      In Ojala’s opinion, the publicity surrounding the bust is only likely to encourage the criminals to pursue the same activities further.
      ”This just tends to whet the appetite, giving fertilizer and seeds, while provoking the criminals to move abroad when their own country does not offer anything”, Ojala argues.
     
Romania relies heavily on donations such as Ojala's. Romanian people are satisfied when Roma go abroad in order to make money.
      The Roma send money to their home country.
      At the same time, the Romanian society’s need to pay the small statutory allowances to the Roma is less of a problem than it used to be.
     
Some Romanian municipalities have not been able or willing to pay welfare benefits to Roma families for many months.
      For example the volunteers carrying out a Finnish Diaconia project initiated by the Helsinki Deaconess Institute were told in the village of Valea Seaca, in the county of Bacau, that ”no financial aid can be paid as the money has run out and loans are not possible to get”.
      As a loan applicant, Romania belongs to the junk series. The same applies to the average Romanian’s attitudes. An often-cited phrase in the country is that the Roma would be best suited as raw materials for a soap factory.
     
When it comes to Roma beggars, the surface has now been peeled off the discussion.
      One no longer needs to wonder why there are beggars on street corners.
      One is free to speak about poverty, racism, crime, abuse, human trafficking - issues that the authorities should be pursuing instead of chasing after ragged people in the streets.
      In Finland, there are mostly self-employed Roma beggars who ask for money for their own use. However, networks of petty criminals do also exist, aiming at exploiting defenceless people.
     
Project Manager Johanna Seppälä from Helsinki’s Safety and Preparedness Co-ordinating Division reports that minibuses carry people to Helsinki through the Baltic States. The money charged for the trip ends up in the pockets of the travel organisers.
      For example on November 10th, the Austrian police intercepted an eight-seater minibus with 27 Romanians crammed into it.
      Let's suppose that each of them had paid say EUR 200 for their trip, then the tour leader took home a total of EUR 5,400 in cash for delivering the human load.
     
Roma people frequently take out high-interest loans to finance their trips, then get into financial difficulties with the usurers, whereupon they become victims of extortion and wind up doing the bidding of criminals higher up the food chain.
      The idea is much the same as in those instant loans: first you are in a bit of trouble and you borrow some money, but if you are unable to repay the loan as agreed, you will soon get into a whole world of hurt.
     
A debate at a recent seminar in Vienna on the Roma migration and the free movement rights for EU citizens painted a black picture of the future.
      ”I bet that you willl see children doped with cough medicines begging in the streets in Helsinki next summer”, said lawyer Valeriu Nicolae from the Policy Center for Roma and Minorities organisation, speaking to the Finns attending the seminar.
      Nicolae visited Helsinki a few weeks ago.
     
If his prediction comes true, the empathy of even the most warm-hearted Finns is sure to slide below zero.
      Along with the most heartless criminals, the entire Roma community will be labelled as socially worthless scum.
      Moreover, those biased racists who are afraid of everything unfamiliar that comes from outside will be able to clap their hairy hands more and more enthusiastically.
     
     
The writer is a Helsingin Sanomat news reporter. A book by Kimmo Oksanen, Kerjäläisten valtakunta - totuus kerjäävistä romaneista... ja muita valheita (“The Beggars’ Kingdom - the Truth of the Begging Roma and Other Lies”) was published by WSOY in the spring of 2009.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 27.11.2009


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)
  Finn working with Roma in Romania does not expect flood of beggars in Helsinki (19.2.2008)
  Migrant Roma beggars in centre of Helsinki live in tents under bridge (5.2.2008)
  Mayor Pajunen wants new law to ban begging (19.5.2009)
  Helsinki street patrol tries to improve life of Eastern European beggars in the capital (18.9.2008)
  Beggars cause position of Roma to be taken up by EU (11.6.2008)

Links:
  Helsinki Deaconess Institute

KIMMO OKSANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kimmo.oksanen@hs.fi