Norway ditches plans to penalise begging

OSLO - Oil-rich Norway, one of the world's wealthiest countries, has announced that it is 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 targed Roma migrants and some threated 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.

AFP