Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE FAR-RIGHT Sweden Democrats party today proposed forbidding foreigners from begging in the country under penalty of jail time or expulsion.
“Make begging in Sweden an offence for foreigners and impose the punishment of expulsion or an entry ban” for a certain amount of time, the party wrote in a political programme.
The Sweden Democrats entered parliament for the first time in 2010 on an anti-immigration, eurosceptic platform, and the party hopes to win even more seats in September 2014 legislative elections.
The latest opinion polls show the party has around 12 percent support among voters.
According to the party, in a section of the programme entitled “fight against criminality”, there are two types of beggars in Sweden.
The main reason beggars come to Sweden is to beg in a professional manner. We can compare them to Swedish beggars who often beg because of their homelessness or addiction to alcohol or drugs.
“The Sweden Democrats think that professional begging has no place here in Sweden. We also feel that Swedish social protection must first of all be directed towards, and take care of, our fellow citizens,” according to the document.
Sweden has relatively few homeless people, however their number has increased as a result of the economic crisis in Europe.
The government in 2012 counted 370 homeless European Union citizens in the country, most of whom were men or Roma.
- © AFP 2013.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Great idea. Let’s do it here. If you can’t support yourself then go home
John’s gonna be called a racist in 3-2-1
You know it Alan. The PC brigade are coming
The few red thumbs are chomping at the bit, they’re just not brave enough to be the first to chime in. It’ll happen though!
I’ve always wondered how to “bed in a “professional manner”.
While wearing a suit, maybe?
I’ll be the first to say it – John Meade for Taoiseach.
Couldn’t agree more. And give their money to irish charities .
Hasn’t been happening for a while. They are in the minority and have packed it in with the rest of labour. We are racist and they know it. It’s a cheaper and more productive society. WTF are those scroungers doing over here in the first place?
Bunch of racists…there I said it….
Yepee I’m your 100th thumbs up!
Do you mean these type of beggars?
Oh I thought lefty Scandinavian liberals welcomed lax immigration and d wonderful colour and diversity it brings, No? It turns out they don’t like thieves and scroungers polluting their city streets either.
“John’s gonna be called a racist in 3-2-1″
I can feel a “Racist much?” in my bones
Great idea. One we should adopt in Ireland. I am sick of all the foreign professional beggars in our Country.
Either they contribute or they leave.
Good stuff. Bring it on.
They should start by arresting them in Dublin (foreign & locals) that sit under bank machines begging.
The way it should be. Same if a European citizen wants to work in another EU country, they can do so but if they lose the job after 2 years paying tax they should be entitled to 6 months JSA, after this time you are cut off. And should return to your home country if you cannot find another job. As for paying childrens allowance for children that don’t live in the country. They should pay the rate the allowance is in the country they live and not the Irish rate.
exactly Matt, those exact words and those 2 exact points i’ve said time and time again. pay it at destination countries rate, some of it is about 2-3 weeks wages in certain EU countries! and yea, i had been quite lenient in allowing them 2 years on the dole then off home, but your 6 months would be the way they would do it to you. Some of the EU states wouldn’t welcome you anyway and make their excuses ‘we’re a poor country’. The EU is not equal then, freedom my a***. The grass is greener here, the lingo is taught in all of europe, its one of the easiest to learn. Handy number. It will happen, when is the question. They’re not telling Joan the truth over in Brussels. Time to shut down now. Party over.
A political party only formed in 2010 and already has a 12% share of the voting public on its side based on the immigration situation. Better wake up our lazy boys and girls in the big house . The Swedish government stated that the vast majority of these ” professional beggars ” were of Roma origin. Not being racist, just stating the facts.
Yes that is a fact and is also true in this country. Remember the beggars with the amputated legs only to be filmed walking away on two legs. Im sure there plenty more examples. Bring it in here too, there are plenty of charities to donate to.
They didn’t form in 2010 they just got enough votes to get them a couple of seat ib parliment.
They were actually formed in the late 1980s, members coming from various other groupings and parties including the interestingly titled Nordic Reich Party. They rejected Nazism in 1999.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Democrats
They seem like a nicer, more media-savvy version of the BNP.
I’m all for banning begging, full stop! Not just ‘foreign’ beggars though. First, we must offer folk assistance into work. There’s been plenty criticism of Roma beggars here in Scotland however what people fail to realise is that employment restrictions were put on Romanians to prevent them from seeking general employed work. These restrictions have been in place for years and will only be lifted here in the UK come January. If folk don’t wish to work then I’m perfectly comfortable putting them on the first plane out of here.
Sean, Romas are not Romanians,, they are a race that have populated most countries in Europeover a number of centuries, from the Baltic to Iberia. So these beggars could equally come from Spain or Romania. It is like saying Jews come from Israel
You might find that Roma people and Romanian people are two distinct groups, but carry on….
So why did they go to Scotland if employment restrictions exist. To beg stupid!!
My point Carina is that ALL people travelling on Romanian passports, including ethnic Roma, have been prevented from finding paid employment here in the UK. Seems bizarre that the ‘natives’ here harp on about Roma not working, when they legally can’t! Just to be picky Carina, many of the Roma have been in Romania for centuries, therefore I think it’s safe to regard them as Romanians now!
MOST Roma have arrived in the UK & Ireland on ROMANIAN passports. Many have been in Romania for centuries, so I’ll stand by my claim!
They are permitted to to work on a self-employed basis here in the UK. Selling the big issue would fall into this category! These guys are the least of our problems. Why don’t we confiscate the payouts to the dodgy bankers here in the UK & Ireland? We’d have enough money to house every last beggar in a feckin mansion – and then some!
Sean that will all change in January. They can all come and work from then. No restrictions. Take a walk around Park lane/ Hyde Park in London they have setup camp. The place is a mess. They got paid flights and cash to return home which they took. But they returned soon after.
Roma gypsies are of indian descent who settled in Romania and surrounding countries.technically there Romanian.my ancestors are French but I’m irish.simples.anyway.get rid of the begging f€&ks.dirtbirds
How do you know that? Plenty of Bulgarian and Moldovan Roma here so I have to disagree that most are Romanian. Generalising is bliss
I’ve read the stats Ian. Most have travelled here in the last 10 years on Romanian passports. You are correct, not all, but most.
Sean, either way, they should not be here at all.
Irish people have always been a soft touch when it comes to beggars, not just the street variety but the NGO’s too. We give and give and ask no questions. It’s a lovely trait, our generosity, but it makes gormless fools of us too when you consider where our money goes. To Roma organised crime on one front, and to pay 200,000 pa salaries to the executives of the myriad of charities that are de facto businesses on the other.
It’s time Irish people educated themselves on the realities.
We should take a leaf out of there book
their …… ;)
Maybe if you spent less time snorting coke up your trout-end you’d have some time to learn the basics of your native language.
Drugs are for mugs.
Isn’t Irish our native language?? But you’re clearly a weirdo or loner or something so I won’t even bother arguing with you
Send them packing!we have enough problems of our own..if you don’t contribute then away you go…
It’s always important to “bed” in a professional manner
To “bed” in a professional manner, are you confusing begging with prostitution?
Look at the line of text after the headline. I’m not the one who’s confused.
The author of the sub heading must be…
Caroline sorry not meant as a “reply” to you but as a stand alone comment.
That’s the problem with free travel in the EU. I’ve heard of people on “begging holidays” coming over to beg and going home with the profits.
I dunno how I feel about begging but I absolutely can’t stand seeing children out begging either alone or with adults.
Police in Croatia stopped a bus packed with people heading to Romania. They had thousands of Euros and pounds. They said they worked in Dublin, London and Paris but could not prove it. When they say work. They mean begging in those cities.
I’d say it’s a handy enough gig.
Actually, when I was living in Rialto last year in a student accommodation I’d almost always meet a Roma (I knew they were Roma because they had the lucky coin necklaces!) family at the Luas stop on the way into town.. When I’d be walking back to abbey street to get the Luas home they’d either be outside the €2 shop or the bank begging and then get the Luas back to their gaff. Amazed me!
@ Matt They are like Irish nackers scattared all over the world. I see no difference.
Fair enough proposal.
The united states of america works because the people are all immigrants and are all in the same senario. So people travelling between states generally works and causes no problems. In the EU free travel is less likely to work, too many languages and cultures make integration difficult. The states are run different with different currencies and different level of wages. Free travel in the EU is fine for holidays and people who get work, when it comes to the dole and begging, i’m sorry its not gonna work. If you have no job and no income you should not be allowed travel to other countries and cause trouble.
Where I live there is roma families living it up in nice 4/5 bed houses paid by us the tax payer,While most of us struggle to get by with paying mortgage utility bills etc,These f**kers are out robbing and begging I have seen it happen in the local supermarket with them robbing.
One of the lads from my estate told me of a certain family caught robbing kids bikes within the estate,I am far from being a right wing nut but I agree with this Swedish party in removing them from their country.
The thing is no politicians here will have the balls to call for something similar to be done,My dentist is from Romania and the stories he told me about the huge houses they live in over there.
Over the years on many occasions I have walked by genuine homeless people,Sleeping in door ways and would get them a hot drink & food I have yet to see a homeless roma person.
Didn’t happen.
What did not happen
Roma families living in 4/5 houses at the governments expense. That didn’t happen. That is clearly pure bullshit.
No assistance should be given to those who don’t put something back into the economy no matter how small it is
but they buy cereal, beer, cigs (minus the tonnes brought in) shop in lidl and western union, pay rent to the landlords, surely thats enough?
What? Foreign beggars come in specifically to beg, but Swedish beggars only beg because of drugs and homelessness? And that makes it okay for Swedish people to beg? What about an illegal refugee fleeing persecution? Do they deserve help less than some Swedish person who got involved in drugs knowing the risks?
You’d swear poverty was a black and white issue listening to them. They should be helping the homeless, not saying the homeless in Sweden should only be Swedish. That helps no one.
I think the idea of banning begging by foreigners is a gud one.
What they are saying is they want to help their own genuinely homeless citizens and get rid of professional beggars. Sounds fair.
Yes Susie! people do come here and other countries to take advantage. Whether it’s our welfare system or the generously of the public it doesn’t matter it just happens. We can’t get rid of our own beggar but doesn’t mean we should tolerate people who are not Irish who take advantage. I might be stereotyping but I will never give money to a Roma beggar for that reason. It’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it!
Unfortunately many knuckle-draggers who post here would like to ban foreigners…full stop.
This party is vile and disgusting, with fascist links. They have no intention of actually helping homeless Swedish people. They just want foreigners and native minorities out of their country. They aren’t just talking about beggars taking advantage in a country, or even beggars who have genuinely fallen on hard times. They are talking about all foreigners and native minorities, they’re just beginning with beggars.
And the do gooders are out.get up off your rectum if you have no job.go out and find some work or do something positive.
Susie you may be right but thats no surprise that the “far Right” and Far left” are rearing their heads, the only surprise is it took so long, people whether you like it or not are not happy about the current immigration situation, and it is only going to get a lot worse, it will just take time thats all, as sure as night follows day!
BTW im not suggesting that it SHOULD happen!
All well and good , but who would honestly choose to beg ? I know the Roma’s get bad stick but I believe there is a hierarchy where the people who aren’t begging are forcing the women and children onto the streets . Who would choose to spend their days on the streets with their child getting abused if they Had an option. There are being manipulated .
Sssshhhh Niall, nobody wants to add that spanner to the works.
I think you are right, I don’t think people would choose it as I lifestyle however if it’s available, some people will default to it and others forced.
If it was illegal to beg here, those that control the gangs wouldn’t send women and children here to do it.
It’s not going to go away by itself, therefore countries need to set a standard.
If its banned, then it’s helping people as they can no longer be forced to beg.
Just why are they here.,
If they are being forced to beg, then this law makes sense.
The only way to stop begging is to stop stupid people giving them money. Don’t give them anything! Give to the charities instead.
The same charities that pay salaries of €130k to €175k for those at the top.
Always check who is on the board of charities. I have blacklisted a couple.
Yes, you’re all right in different ways. Give to beggars, not charities, but take the time to vet charities for good practice and efficiency in turning money into real good. Still, at least we’re not as bad in Ireland as in the States where the lightly regulated nature of the sector means that there are many charities where, for every $20 you give, as little as a quarter of a cent actually goes to the needy and the rest on “administration”.
If you do not want beggars on your streets don’t give money to them, use a local charity, that way you win.
Proper order…
This is thinly veiled xenophobia and nothing more.
Their policy aim is to resolve a societal problem with homelessness by…stereotyping swathes of foreigners as criminals and deporting them. I see no reference in their statement in how they propose to assist ‘native’ beggars nor do they propose any method of distinguishing between ‘professional’ foreign beggars and ‘genuine’ foreign beggars. These elements would surely be central to the type of social protection programme that they are ostensibly proposing.
I find it particularly abhorrent that anyone from a country like Ireland that has such a deep history of poverty and emigration would agree with such tripe (as most of the above commenters/thumbers seem to do). I’m sure many of you have distant relatives in Oz/USA/UK/NZ etc that lived through the ‘no blacks, no dogs, no irish’ era, and yet here you are spewing out bile about how feckin’ forinners are to blame for X, Y & Z whilst doing or proposing nothing to actually resolve the problems at hand.
Poverty is not a crime, nor is race; yet according to the neanderthalic reaction to this article, both should be.
Kevin yes you are correct about the no dogs Irish etc that many an Irish person had to put up with years ago,Yes the Irish are spread across the globe and went to the countries you have mentioned.
But those Irish immigrants worked their balls off to make a new life and possibly send some money back home,The Irish who left built up communities within their new found country’s and contribute by paying taxes etc there.
They did not receive free housing or welfare payments upon arrival in the country they decided to go to,
What have these foreign nationals contribute to Ireland? I have yet to see any of them work has their dole been cut for not attending a fas course?
Who pays for the housing of them and I never heard of their kids going to school,Should the dept of education send an inspector around to ask why.
It is bad enough having our own home grown leeches without importing more of them.
Whither you think it thinly veiled xenophobia is irrelevant, “everyone” knows foreigners are not to blame for any of economic woes.
The situation is people across Europe are actually getting fed up with real or imaginary immigrant problems and THAT is a real and dangerous problem.
@dave my point is that this organisation seeks to group beggars into 1: good honest down & outs who have addiction problems and/or have fallen on hard times and 2: disgusting criminal leeches who discredit the legitimate cases of group 1.
Further, they imply that all or most of group 1 are ‘domestic’ and that all or most of group 2 are ‘foreign’. Whatever your views on the proposed policy are, there is no disputing that bracketing ‘problem individuals’ along these lines is xenophobic.
If anyone is of the genuine belief that all domestic folk are inherently good / hardworking etc and all foreign folk are untrustworthy / lazy etc, then I would say that at best you have simply fallen for their rhetoric, or at worst you genuinely believe and freely espouse the same viewpoints that quite correctly place this party on the far right.
“There is no disputing that bracketing problem individuals along these lines is xenophobic”.
Well Kevin, I’ll dispute it. If there is evidence to back it up its not xenophobic, its merely profiling based on facts in the same way that its perfectly reasonable to say that the average person suffering from lung cancer is statistically likely to be a smoker.
Dave, I think you’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you want to depict all the Irish who travelled abroad as hard working, honest men and women in contrast to those dirty, lazy foreigners coming here. Many Irish people who went abroad were like that. And many people coming TO Ireland are like that. Just as there are criminals who come here from abroad, and just as there were Irish people who went abroad and set themselves up in a life of crime. I mean, c’mon, even today Irish-American crime families are near the forefront of organized crime on the American east coast!
Meanwhile, Avina…
(i) you say “if there is evidence”. What’s your evidence again to support the claim that native Swedish beggars are genuinely in need and non-Swedish beggars (some of them quite possibly Irish I’d point out) are not?
(ii) actually, I think you’ll find “profiling” based on gender, race and so on is frowned on. In fact, in the EU it’s illegal (I’m sure you’ll remember when they banned you getting car insurance discounts simply for having the same reproductive bits as some good drivers)
@Peter
I don’t have any evidence either way – my point is that something is not necessarily xenophic if there is evidence to back it up.
And neither is profiling necessarily illegal – your home insurance premium will be higher if you live in an area that makes it statistically more likely that you will be burgled. This doesn’t mean the insurance companies are discriminating against you.
Not one person said poverty was a crime, but pick pocketing and shoplifting are. So is verbal harassment and intimidation.
This is a very sensitive subject, but I do think begging should be some sort of offence, and I would hope the number of people going to a country solely just to beg are low, that’s not right to do, also, what is “professional begging”.
By the way, lady gaga professionally begs all the time, there, I said it!!!!
Sensitive for who? The beggers? No need to beg in Ireland. Help is available for all.
This is true. Lady Ga Ga begs all the time. She rings me at all hours ,begging me to come around to her place for a cuddle. Well it starts off as a cuddle , then it’s a game of poker, Honest…
I BEG ur pardon !!!!
Swedes also had compulsory sterilisation until recently. When they decide to do something they certainly don’t hold back!
A great idea.
Bit racist…
Foreigners are now a race?
The only thing this sort of measure accomplishes is an increase in the market share for indigenous criminal gangs.
Anyone, in Ireland certainly and I suspect in Sweden too, who imagines there aren’t ‘professional’ begging operations going on organized by people born and raised locally are kidding themselves. It’s a problem that needs to be stamped out and taken seriously. But the Sweden Democrats patting themselves on the back that if all the faces they see holding paper cups out for change are white then that’s some great victory is just stupid grandstanding.
They are like Irish nackers scattared all over the world. I see no difference.
And everyone loves them too
Without a doubt ! They are very handy for new generators. Great suppliers.
They have no cash in Sweden. Everyone uses cards only. How would they pay a beggar then? Seriously this is propaganda.
Irish have no reason to feel panicky. It is in Irish culture-gypsies and it is romanian culture. Both nationalities have it in their blood.
have your say