The Stoltenberg government decided in 2013 that beggars caught snooping should be deported. Now SV and Kirkens Bymisjon demand that the instruction be removed.
SV top Petter Eide calls the practice inhuman.
– This upsets me so much that I have problems with being a professional Storting politician, Eide says to Dagsavisen.
Also read: – Beggars are spit on and fired after NRK documentaries
Dagsavisen has been given access to two cases from 2019 where the appeals body Utlendingsnemnda (UNE) has upheld deportation and expulsion decisions made by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI). In one case, a beggar from Romania was expelled from Norway for two years for stealing a package of sausages. In another case, a beggar was expelled from Norway for stealing a chocolate.
– It is not a proportionate reaction in relation to the so-called crime, says Eide, who sits on the Storting’s justice committee.
Also read: Police: – Do not buy food for beggars and give them the receipt
Marit Nybø in Kirkens Bymisjon, says they believe the practice is discriminatory and the organization is prepared to take legal action to stop the practice. In the first instance, the organization is considering raising the matter before the Civil Ombudsman or the Discrimination Tribunal.
State Secretary Hilde Barstad (H) in the Ministry of Justice defends the practice.
– I think it corresponds well with the legal opinion of most people that one considers the deportation of foreigners who are punished and who it is believed will commit new criminal acts, she writes in an email to Dagsavisen.
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