Labour Party politician and Deputy Mayor of Oslo, Libe Solberg Rieber-Mohn said to Dagsavisen that the number of foreign beggars has exploded. It can not continue. They have to do something to regulate the number. Rieber-Mohn’s solution is making reporting the begging.
– We are also proposing to give police the authority to prohibit panhandling in certain areas where organized begging and possiblly criminal activities are going on. We own and use public spaces in the city together. We must also think of kindergartens and kids who do not dare to use the parks, she said.
In the Parliament, the Labor party had voted against begging ban proposal by Conservative Party. But this proposal comes as a private initiative by Deputy Mayor Rieber-Mohn and Rina Mariann Hansen in Oslo Labour Party. Both proposals will be considered by the City Council in February.
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Far-left party Rødt’s leader Bjørnar Moxnes is not impressed by the suggestion from Rieber-Mohn. He believes it is a result of a battle between the Conservatives and Labour on the issue of the Romani people.
– They want to show that they will be tough against Roma, at least as tough as the Conservatives. This is pure symbolic politics that will not do anything with the influx of Roma, because the root of the problem is entirely different, says Moxnes to NTB.
Moxnes thinks that the problem must be solved with concrete and feasible measures, so as to give the beggars a single accommodation and sanitary facilities so that you avoid unwanted scenes from last summer, where the visiting beggars occupied parks and gardens.
– Labor voted against this proposal when we suggested this to the City Council, but their own proposal would not change the situation, says Moxnes.
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