Street begging, otherwise known as almsgiving, or rather panhandling, is gradually becoming visible in Malta.
In September this year, three Bulgarian beggars were conditionally discharged for a year after pleading guilty to begging in a public place, and to living a vagrant life. This is the proper legal terminology and it shows that despite repealing several laws, the government stills needs to revise and update various others.
An image posted on online social media this week revealed a beggar roaming the streets of Sliema. She is believed to be of Romanian origin.
Begging in Malta is associated with Romany and Bulgarian people and one hardly ever comes across Maltese citizens begging in the streets, except for the odd one here and there.
The question is, should begging be made legal?
This week, former Canadian attorney general Michael Bryant called on the Ontario government to repeal the “rotten law” that targets panhandlers (people who beg on the streets) and so-called squeegee kids (a group of men who swarm cars at intersections to ‘clean’ their car’s windscreens).
Bryant is among a coalition of individuals and organisations urging his former Liberal government colleagues to take the now 15-year-old Safe Streets Act off the books.
During his four years as Ontario's attorney general, Bryant says he “failed” by not repealing the act when he had the chance to do so.
Bryant was joined by fellow members of the coalition, who note that the wealthy, middle-class people or charities are not issued tickets when they fundraise on the streets.
21% at risk of poverty or exclusion
National Statistics Office figures on income and living conditions for survey year 2010, published in January, revealed that almost 21 per cent of the population are at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
In August last year, people walking through Valletta or Sliema may have come across a Romanian man with an amputated arm begging in the streets.
At the time, then Family Minister Chris Said had referred the matter to the police, asking them to remove the man from the streets and direct him to the government’s support agency Appoġġ, to be given help, “should the case have been genuine”.
Under Maltese law, it is illegal to lead an idle and vagrant life, as stated in Article 9, Chapter 338 (w).
The law also states that anyone who does not own property, has no other means of subsistence and “fails to show that he has habitually endeavoured to engage in or exercise some art, trade or other occupation”, is also breaking the law.
Article 9, Chapter 338(x) of the Criminal Code states that it is illegal ‘in any public place importunes any person to beg alms’, meaning that individuals who bother others for money, especially if done in an aggressive manner, are subject to facing a contravention.