Recriminalize begging in Belgium? “This makes no sense. On the contrary, the right to beg must be enshrined in law.”

“Realize: of the 305 municipalities which have adopted an anti-begging regulation, 253 have adopted measures which are contrary to the European Social Charter, to the principle set out in the judgment ‘Lacatus against Switzerland’, of January 19, 2021 “he explains. In this judgment, the European Court of Human Rights affirms for the first time that begging cannot be prohibited in general, although it can be regulated. On this basis, the associations submitted a collective complaint to the Council of Europe, more precisely to the European Committee of Social Rights, to have the right to beg explicitly recognized when one has no other means of survival. .

“The right to beg, if it is to try to survive, must be enshrined in a law applicable everywhere in Belgium”

“If, in the long term, this right to beg is enshrined in a federal law, the municipalities will be forced to review their regulations. Because it must be emphasized: the removal of the ban on vagrancy from the Penal Code in 1993 did not prevented municipalities from introducing a partial or total ban on begging at the local level.” And the same to illustrate: “In Namur, Tournai, Charleroi, there are anti-begging regulations of variable geometry. In a case relating to the Walloon Festival, for example, the City of Namur managed to completely illegally temporarily ban begging. City police officers reacted immediately by declaring that they were forced to move beggars, although they were less annoying than scooters left abandoned on the sidewalk…”

Between 200 and 300 euros payable by the State for one day of detention

For Georges de Kerchove, recriminalizing begging in Belgium makes no sense. “Such a step back would be completely useless, he maintains. Aggressive begging or begging with children are already punishable today. We should therefore not add new sanctions. And then, what? To the extent where these people are insolvent, are you going to put them in prison? I remind our politicians that one day of detention costs the State between 200 and 300 euros.”

More generally, the person concerned underlines the importance of not making a mistake in the debate: “It is not against beggars that we must fight, but against poverty.” The latest surveys show that the number of homeless people has quadrupled in a decade in Belgium. “From the moment a person finds themselves on the street, social protection is uncertain, which means that they are forced to beg to survive. To try to reduce begging, I think we must increase the minimum income (CPAS, RIS, long-term unemployment, Editor’s note) to bring them back to the poverty line. On the other hand, the status of legal cohabitant must be abolished which – within the framework of the procedure relating to the reference domiciliation of the homeless – sanctions the right to live as a family. In the same vein, it is completely absurd to ask the person who finds themselves on the street to provide proof that they are on the street… In short, let’s start by breaking down these barriers. It will undoubtedly be much more useful.”