Eskilstuna becomes the first city in Sweden to issue a begging permit. GThe city council of Eskilstuna of this small town hopes to reduce the number of people who beg for money by enacting a law requiring them to apply for permission and pay tax before they can ask the residents for money.
Beggar License
A begging permit costs 250 CZK or 26 US dollars and is valid for three months. People who want to apply for permission can do this either online or at the police station and must have a valid ID.
The cost of permission may not seem so big, but for those who live on the streets, this amount can mean the difference between hunger and survival. In addition, many street beggars do not have identity cards.
Advisor Jimmy Jansson, a Social Democrat, said the law was designed to “bureaucratize” and thereby “complicate” people to ask for money.
“This is not about persecuting vulnerable people, but about trying to answer a more important question: do we believe that begging should be normalized within the Swedish welfare model,” Jansson said in an interview with the local Aftonbladet newspaper.
In his opinion, the permission system will have an additional advantage, linking the homeless and other vulnerable segments of the city’s population with social services that can help them.
Homeless problem
In Eskilstuna, more than 10 percent of the 100,000 inhabitants of the city are refugees. In recent years, the number of homeless people in the city has grown, especially with a wave of migrants from countries such as Romania and Bulgaria. Although not all poor cities are migrants, it cannot be denied that there is a humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed.
Begging permission news has sparked much controversy in Sweden and around the world, and critics of the new law have argued that permissions pose an already vulnerable beggar in great danger.
Thomas Lindroos, director of the city’s Stadsmission charitable organization, which fights homelessness, noted that gangs and traffickers can use the permit system by paying for multiple permits and extorting money from vulnerable beggars.