This tiny country doesn’t often make the headlines in terms of Roma. Now Simone Beissel, a member of the municipal executive board of the city of Luxembourg is facing criticisms and demands for resignation after having made what many deem racists comments on Roma in the context of begging.
Ann article in the Swiss boulevard press about organized beggars due to the condemnation of several Roma for having abused people and forced them to beg in Switzerland. When one thinks that the average money made by a beggar in Switzerland is around 20 CHF per day and person, this is really not the most lucrative criminal operation. Such articles generalizing from a single case are really bad.
An article about a scam in Zurich, whereby a person asks for food near an automatic distributor, and when a person is kind enough to pay, the scammer selects a charger instead, for a higher sum, which can be returned for deposit at a later stage. According to the victim, a reporter for a local newspaper, she was asked by a “young woman who I would classify as Sinti or Roma”…
This is the text that is presented in this article: Mirabela, Bobi and Ilie live in Geneva and sleep on the streets, in their cars or in emergency shelters. Due to lack of work, these Roma sometimes beg. However, begging is prohibited in strategic places in Geneva’s public space. Roma are therefore regularly arrested and fined by the police. Their debt can reach astronomical sums and risks being converted into days in prison.
It is true that begging is forbidden. But, there is a whiff of generalisation here… And that is bad.
The President of the Montenegro Roma Council, Mensur Šalaj, warned that the problem of child begging is widespread throughout the country. According to the council, there are no systemic measures to fight child begging, and often only the consequences, and not the causes, of this phenomenon are dealt with.
Poznań residents report that people of Roma origin appear on the streets and in shopping centers asking for money. They are often children, sometimes without parents. Some, seeing a few-year-old with a hand outstretched for money, want to act. So they call the police or the city guard. It doesn’t work though.
Polish law clearly states that beggars can be arrested and fined, as begging is forbidden. But it does not solve the poverty issue.
Two people were sentenced recently in Bosnia Hercegovina for human trafficking. They had forced people to beg and steal in Paris by threatening them and their families back home. Apparently, they managed to earn around 1.5 mio EUR between 2012 and 2015.
The threats were recorded, which provided the evidence and they were sentenced to 12 years each.
The canton of Vaud is debating on the extension of the begging interdiction that was issued by the city of Lausanne. The city and its police chief are strongly for it while the canton seems to be sceptical. In any case, begging interdictions are inefficient at best. They have been tried in many places without success and are actually aimed at very few people: In Lausanne, a scientific study that followed all beggars in the city for one year showed that there were less than 30 at any given point in time, and that each beggar has on average less than 25 CHF per day which is not much in Switzerland.
According to the police, Roma families constitute the bulk of begging with children in the capital. Five years ago, the police identified ten to fifteen active families near the Grand-Place and Rue Neuve. At the beginning of 2022, it counted six times more.
Begging with minors was forbidden, then the law was suspended, and if finally again forbidden, with fines of up to 350 EUR. The discussion whether this interdiction is the right solution are ongoing.
The new cantonal law against begging in Geneva does not violate the fundamental rights of beggars. This is the conclusion of the Geneva courts which rejected Me Dina Bazarbachi’s appeal. The latter, sometimes identified as “the lawyer of the Roma”, questioned the validity of the legislation. But the Constitutional Chamber considered that the text was proportionate and responded to a public interest. While the fines could still be issues, the appeal had the effect of suspending the arrests of beggars. It is not the case anymore.
Forbidding begging is not a solution.
The city of Brussels introduced rules for beggars, forbidding people below the age of 26 to beg. This was suspended by the supervisory authority, namely the Brussels Minister in charge of Local Authorities Bernard Clerfayt. The city is now contesting this.
One knows that regulations of begging have very little impact and only fight the symptoms, the real causes.
The city of Brussels is trying to stop children younger than 16 from begging. And of course, these are Roma.
Forbidding begging is not a solution.
Another one of those articles on Roma in the Ukraine: This time, in Lutz, the police chased Roma away from a bus station where they were begging, stealing, and fighting.
Not good for anyone.
The usual kind of “reporting”. Yes, there it shows a police raid against Roma in Romania. But Child slavery? Begging? Come on …
– BUILT WITH BRIT CASH. The luxury town where rich Romanian gangsters build mega mansions from British money and child slavery. In: The Sun. 22.02.2019. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8478723/luxury-town-romania-human-trafficking-uk/ [link-preview url=”https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8478723/luxury-town-romania-human-trafficking-uk/”]
A recourse has been submitted to the European Court of Human Rights against the interdiction and criminalisation of begging in the canton Vaud and the city of Lausanne.
– Recours déposé à Strasbourg contre l’interdiction vaudoise de la mendicité. In: RTS. 01.02.2019. https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/vaud/10185827-recours-depose-a-strasbourg-contre-l-interdiction-vaudoise-de-la-mendicite.html
– Vaud: recours à Strasbourg contre l’interdiction de mendier. In: Radio Lac. 01.02.2019. https://www.radiolac.ch/actualite/vaud-recours-a-starsbourg-contre-linterdiction-de-mendier/ [link-preview url=”https://www.rts.ch/info/regions/vaud/10185827-recours-depose-a-strasbourg-contre-l-interdiction-vaudoise-de-la-mendicite.html “]
A top Swedish court has given the green light to a controversial begging ban in the town of Vellinge. The original ban had been lifted by court order, but the highest administrative court has re-instated it.
Begging bans are known to be ineffective in most places they were introduced.
– Mixed Reactions as Swedish Court Green-Lights ‘Anti-Gypsy’ Begging Ban. In: Sputnik News. 19.12.2018. https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812191070825722-sweden-begging-ban/ [link-preview url=”https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812191070825722-sweden-begging-ban/”]
The Roma beggars from Lausanne are back. And are now looking for jobs (as begging is forbidden).
– Des mendicants reviennent à Lausanne pour y travailler. In: Le Matin. 09.12.2018. https://www.24heures.ch/lematindimanche/Des-mendiants-reviennent-a-Lausanne-pour-y-travailler/story/18627828 [link-preview url=”https://www.24heures.ch/lematindimanche/Des-mendiants-reviennent-a-Lausanne-pour-y-travailler/story/18627828″]
Two more articles on beggars in Lausanne. In one, the journalist explains why she prefers not to have beggars, and in the other, they wonder whre they all went.
I any case, such begging interdictions are a bad idea.
– La mendicité ou l’épine dans le pied. In: Le Temps. 06.11.2018. https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/mendicite-lepine-pied
– Mais ou sont passes le mendicants. In: 24 Heures. https://www.24heures.ch/vaud-regions/Mais-ou-sont-passes-les-mendiants-Roms/story/23456490 [link-preview url=”https://www.letemps.ch/opinions/mendicite-lepine-pied “]
Following the definitive interdiction of begging in the Swiss city of Lausanne, a plethora of articles on the subject: Roma now asking for work rather than for money, how to enforce the interdiction, etc…
The experience of Geneva shows those interdictions are totally useless.
– Après les pieces, les roms mendient du travail. In: 24 heures. 04.11.2018. https://www.24heures.ch/vaud-regions/pieces-roms-mendient-travail/story/25645234
– MENDICITÉ: LES ROMS MÈNENT UNE ACTION DE SENSIBILISATION. In: Le Matin. 01.11.2018. https://www.lematin.ch/news/Mendicite-les-Roms-menent-une-action-de-sensibilisation/story/31011864
– Traquer les mendiants: une mission comme une autre. In: 20 Minutes 9CH). 01.11.2018. https://www.20min.ch/ro/news/vaud/story/Premier-jour-d-interdiction-de-mendier-dans-le-canton-17043514
– “Il ne suffit pas d’interdire la mendicité pour que le phénomène disparaisse”. In: RTS Info. 01.11.2018. https://www.rts.ch/info/suisse/9961937–il-ne-suffit-pas-d-interdire-la-mendicite-pour-que-le-phenomene-disparaisse-.html
– MENDICITÉ SORIN, LE DERNIER MENDIANT DE LAUSANNE VOUS SALUE… In: Le Matin. 31.10.2018. https://www.lematin.ch/suisse/Sorin-le-dernier-mendiant-de-Lausanne-vous-salue/story/19432540 [link-preview url=”https://www.24heures.ch/vaud-regions/pieces-roms-mendient-travail/story/25645234 “]
Geneva forbade begging 10 years ago. The result is bad: None of the fines cashed in, much more expenses, and there are still beggars.
It shows that the money would be better used in helping those people.
– Milliers d’amendes et taux d’encaissement de 0%. In: 20 Minutes (CH). 27.10.2018. https://www.20min.ch/ro/news/geneve/story/Des-milliers-d-amendes-par-an-pour-mendicite-12461136
– En diz ans, la loi antimendicité n’a rien rapport à Genève. In; 24 Heures. https://www.24heures.ch/suisse/suisse-romande/En-dix-ans-la-loi-antimendicite-n-a-rien-rapporte-a-Geneve/story/23953453 [link-preview url=”https://www.20min.ch/ro/news/geneve/story/Des-milliers-d-amendes-par-an-pour-mendicite-12461136 “]
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