Romanian beggars set up camp on open land between highways

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A group of Romanian beggars who arrived in Helsinki from Poland a week ago have set up camp on an unused area of land between major highways.
      On Monday afternoon the mothers of the Matei and Varga families kept a campfire burning, accompanied by two young children. The men were in the centre of the city panhandling.
      The families had heard about the tough line taken by Helsinki officials toward children begging in the streets. The official stance taken by Helsinki is that children accompanying beggars will be taken into foster care.
      “We cannot keep children in the streets. That is why we are here and not in the streets”, said Margareta Matei on Monday.
     
The families of Metei and Varga are from the eastern part of Romania in the Bacau region. Their father Sandor Matei told Helsingin Sanomat a week ago that they were in Finland to pay for the cancer operation of his mother-in-law, and to collect money to buy a house in Romania.
      The family members are unemployed in their home countries.
      Eight people are living in two tents set up on open land between major highways.
     
At a public debate convened by the parliamentary group of the National Coalition Party last week, Mika Pöyry of the Helsinki Police Department said that during the winter, itinerant mendicants have lived mainly in the Rastila camping area, in forests, and in their own cars in parking areas.
      Some of those taking part in the debate were concerned about the beggars’ living conditions and nutrition. The greatest concern was for the children.
      Some people helped the beggars camped out in the east of Helsinki by bringing them food and camping equipment.
     
Project chief Johanna Seppälä of the City of Helsinki said that officials do not plan to actively seek out beggars.
      “We will wait until the beginning of June, when workers of the Deaconness Institute will go out to the streets”, Seppälä said.
      The foot patrol of the Deaconess Institute and the City of Helsinki is to make contact with beggars who have come here, to ask what their motivations were in coming to Finland, and to give them information about their rights and obligations.
      "There have been no police here, and no harassment", Margareta Matei said at the camp on Monday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki Deaconess Institute to set up street patrol to connect with beggars from Eastern Europe (7.5.2008)
  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 (2.2.2008)
  Authorities powerless to act against beggars with children in tow (6.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat