Right-wing
government had proposed prison term of up to a year for beggars and those who
helped them
The Guardian – AFP, 6 February 2015
Norway has stepped back from criminalising begging which is banned in some European countries. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP |
Oil-rich Norway, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, announced Thursday that it was scrapping plans to penalise begging.
The
country’s right-wing government was forced to withdraw the proposal to slap
fines and jail terms of up to one year on beggars and those who help them when
the opposition Centre Party withdrew its support for the ban.
The law
would have allowed for the prosecution of anyone found guilty of “complicity”
with beggars, including giving them transport, shelter, or supplies.
The ruling
coalition argued that the proposal targeted human traffickers and criminal
gangs, but it provoked a storm of protest and accusations that the government
wanted to make charity illegal.
“Punishing
people helping beggars is not acceptable,” the Centre Party’s parliamentary
leader Marit Arnstad told news agency NTB.
“It cannot
be a criminal offence to give people clothes, food and shelter.”
Opponents
of the plan said it unfairly targetted Roma migrants and some threatened a
campaign of civil disobedience.
“Norway, a
country where we prefer to fight poor people rather than poverty,” one
opponent, Oeyvind Steinklev, criticised on Twitter.
Without the
support of the Centre Party, Justice Minister Anders Anundsen, who is from the
anti-immigration Progress Party, was forced to withdraw the proposal due to
lack of parliamentary support.
Last year
Norway introduced the possibility of banning begging locally but so far just
one small southern town, Arendal, has done so.
Begging is
already banned in Denmark and parts of Britain.
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