Helsinki Deaconess Institute to set up street patrol to connect with beggars from Eastern Europe
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In cooperation with the Helsinki Deaconess Institute and FinnChurchAid (FCA), the City of Helsinki is to set up a two-person Romanian-speaking street patrol team. The purpose of the team is to reach out to Helsinki’s Roma beggars of Romanian origin.
Originally the City of Helsinki had planned to establish a Romanian expert to patrol the streets. A decision on the need for consultation was made in the early part of the year, when communication problems with the beggars had become self-evident, for example, due to the lack of common language.
For the time being, the City has taken a time-out in introduction of the expert.
Instead, the City will buy the patrolling service from the Helsinki Deaconess Institute. The institute’s workers will start patrolling the streets from the beginning of June.
“We will ask them why they have arrived in Finland. Naturally it will also be interesting to find out they are genuinely victims of intimidation at home. And are the talks about their money lending and high interests true?” explained senior planning officer Johanna Seppälä from the City of Helsinki Safety and Preparedness Co-ordinating Division on Tuesday.
“The most important thing is to establish a line of contact with them. If they do not want to tell us anything, that is also interesting. If their message is: I am here to beg, leave me alone.”
The City of Helsinki made the decision about its actions on Tuesday. Today, in turn, the City of Helsinki, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the Ministry of the Interior’s joint working group dealing with the beggar issue will conclude their two-day gathering.
Throughout the spring the working group has considered instructions for the authorities for the nationwide standardisation of procedures with regard to dealing with the beggars. Today, Wednesday, the group will hear organisations and large cities.
The group’s instructions for the authorities are likely to be completed today as well. The final report, on the other hand, can be expected towards the end of the month.
“The working group will not change the situation [begging in the streets]. In all likelihood this is a permanent occurrence”, said the working group deputy chairman, police Chief Inspector Esko Ruokonen from the Ministry of the Interior Police Department on Tuesday.
“We need standardised instructions as to how to deal with the beggars. As it stands, some local police have even arrested them.”
Ruokonen does not believe there is enough political will in Finland to criminalise begging. “Only if the begging were causing a disturbance, but then it would have to be really disturbing”, Ruokonen continued.
“To deport them, begging would have to be a serious threat to the public peace, and that it is not.”
What complicates matters is the range and variety of beggars. There are peddlers of false gold and roses, those who stop cars, and petty thieves, but also women begging on their knees, who presumably have nothing to do with the previous. Some are street musicians.
The common denominator is the direction from where the beggars come, in other words the European Union’s poor new Eastern European member states, Romania in particular. The reason for the over-representation of Romania is the country’s sizeable Roma population, which is estimated at a minimum of two million people, the largest in Europe.
Several human rights organisations have reported on Romania’s systematic discrimination against its Roma minority.
So is putting pressure on the Romanian government through the EU one of the means that the working group has discussed?
“Yes”, says Esko Ruokonen.
Originally the City of Helsinki had planned to establish a Romanian expert to patrol the streets. A decision on the need for consultation was made in the early part of the year, when communication problems with the beggars had become self-evident, for example, due to the lack of common language.
For the time being, the City has taken a time-out in introduction of the expert.
Instead, the City will buy the patrolling service from the Helsinki Deaconess Institute. The institute’s workers will start patrolling the streets from the beginning of June.
“We will ask them why they have arrived in Finland. Naturally it will also be interesting to find out they are genuinely victims of intimidation at home. And are the talks about their money lending and high interests true?” explained senior planning officer Johanna Seppälä from the City of Helsinki Safety and Preparedness Co-ordinating Division on Tuesday.
“The most important thing is to establish a line of contact with them. If they do not want to tell us anything, that is also interesting. If their message is: I am here to beg, leave me alone.”
The City of Helsinki made the decision about its actions on Tuesday. Today, in turn, the City of Helsinki, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the Ministry of the Interior’s joint working group dealing with the beggar issue will conclude their two-day gathering.
Throughout the spring the working group has considered instructions for the authorities for the nationwide standardisation of procedures with regard to dealing with the beggars. Today, Wednesday, the group will hear organisations and large cities.
The group’s instructions for the authorities are likely to be completed today as well. The final report, on the other hand, can be expected towards the end of the month.
“The working group will not change the situation [begging in the streets]. In all likelihood this is a permanent occurrence”, said the working group deputy chairman, police Chief Inspector Esko Ruokonen from the Ministry of the Interior Police Department on Tuesday.
“We need standardised instructions as to how to deal with the beggars. As it stands, some local police have even arrested them.”
Ruokonen does not believe there is enough political will in Finland to criminalise begging. “Only if the begging were causing a disturbance, but then it would have to be really disturbing”, Ruokonen continued.
“To deport them, begging would have to be a serious threat to the public peace, and that it is not.”
What complicates matters is the range and variety of beggars. There are peddlers of false gold and roses, those who stop cars, and petty thieves, but also women begging on their knees, who presumably have nothing to do with the previous. Some are street musicians.
The common denominator is the direction from where the beggars come, in other words the European Union’s poor new Eastern European member states, Romania in particular. The reason for the over-representation of Romania is the country’s sizeable Roma population, which is estimated at a minimum of two million people, the largest in Europe.
Several human rights organisations have reported on Romania’s systematic discrimination against its Roma minority.
So is putting pressure on the Romanian government through the EU one of the means that the working group has discussed?
“Yes”, says Esko Ruokonen.
Helsingin Sanomat