Beggars face fine and jail under new law

By The Nation

 

 

Temples nationwide are being urged to discourage visitors from giving money to beggars as it is illegal, according to the Beggar Control Act's latest edition that was published in the Royal Gazette on Monday to be in effect within 90 days.

 

General Anantaporn Kanjanarat, head of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security (MSDHS), said that his agency would co-ordinate with the National Office of Buddhism to ask for co-operation from various temples to educate the public about appropriate merit-making ways and to stop them from giving cash to beggars as it is illegal. 

 

"If people wish to help the beggars, they can make donations to the MSDHS projects for vocational promotion for beggars," he said.

 

As temples are the sites for worshipping and merit-making, many beggars wander around temples and other high-traffic attractions, to ask for money from visitors. 

 

The minister said stickers warning against handing cash to beggars in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cambodian and Myanmar would soon be placed at tourists attractions, airports and state offices.

 

A recent meeting of the Beggar Control Committee at the MSDHS head office in Bangkok was told 237 beggars (including 156 Thais and 81 foreign migrants) had been detected from October 2018 until March 2019, and a total of 4,361 street performers had registered with the authority for access to public space, with only 300 locations available.

 

The meeting also resolved to impose a sliding scale of fines on beggars. Those arrested for panhandling for the first time would be fined at Bt500, the second time Bt2,000, the third time Bt5,000 and the fourth time and above Bt10,000.

 

Such fines were in line with the Beggar Control Act's latest edition, which prohibits people from being beggars or face a maximum one-month jail term and/or a maximum fine of Bt10,000. 

 

The new law required beggars to admit to life quality development and protection centres or quit panhandling. Once they are admitted to such centres, they would not be allowed to leave the centres without permission or face a maximum one-month jail term and/or a maximum fine of Bt10,000. 

 

Those aiding or supporting beggars' panhandling will face a maximum two-year jail term and/or a maximum Bt20,000 fine, while those reaping benefits from beggars by hiring, asking, abetting and instigating the panhandling will face a maximum three-year jail term and/or a maximum Bt30,000 fine.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30368745

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-02

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Beggars straying into monks rich pickings territory.  No surprise.

And meanwhile in Sukhumvit the beggar kids are multiplying and getting more aggressive. A simple no is not enough anymore - have to yell at them to go away. Get them off the street!

2 years jail time for aiding a beggar...what if you pay to bugger a beggar?   ????

So helping dogs is more important than helping people. Is this what the new law means?

    What an absolute hoot. The monks don saffron robes and then do exactly what the unordained beggars do! BEG but they get away with it. Personally I'd sooner give my donation to a street beggar than a bludging temple dweller. 

Edited May 2, 20197 yr by Toknarok
sp

My wife and in-laws are obviously Buddhist but never donate cash other than the token bucket of washing up liquid and incense sticks on important religious dates.  Fair play to them as they don't trust the monks either.

 

 

Edited May 2, 20197 yr by OneEyedPie

I do not enjoy it when people beg for money, and sometimes it can be a nuisance.

BUT I WILL NEVER SUPPORT FORCEFUL REMOVAL of less fortunate people,

Especially in counties were wealth is not in the grasp of many.

 

A real shame they are going down that road..

3 minutes ago, LongTang said:

I do not enjoy it when people beg for money, and sometimes it can be a nuisance.

BUT I WILL NEVER SUPPORT FORCEFUL REMOVAL of less fortunate people,

Especially in counties were wealth is not in the grasp of many.

 

A real shame they are going down that road..

You must be new here. I suggest you do some more research and educate yourself

Criminalizing poverty and starvation.

Yet packs of inbred ferrel canines run wild..

Edited May 2, 20197 yr by mok199

16 minutes ago, madmen said:

You must be new here. I suggest you do some more research and educate yourself

Actually I'm not new to this place at all.

Its also interesting how you mix education into the matter, or is in your formula, the more educated you are, the less you should respect and care about the less fortunate.

 

And please spare me all the mafia style stories about how all of this is organized as its completely irrelevant.

If criminal actors are involved in orchestrating this, Then By all means put them behind bars for a long time.

But going after the lone beggars themselves is just shameful.
Few people will find it enjoyable to sit and beg others for money.

 

I have seen it most mornings in cm monks doing  a blessing or begging.many Thais I see give food in they silver bowl.see a pickup follow later.never seen money pass hands but drink and food.they get alot of food I believe and then the homeless go to the temple for food and sleep,with little job after.it is the ones who beg for cash everywhere that will be stopped

Does that mean that we'll never see our old friend Benjamin again, the German con artist? 

"If people wish to help the beggars, they can make donations to the MSDHS projects for vocational promotion for beggars," he said......

And who will guarantee the money won't disappear into the wrong pockets ??? Thailand has a Corruption reputation you know !!!

2 hours ago, LongTang said:

I do not enjoy it when people beg for money, and sometimes it can be a nuisance.

Nuisance is an understatement. Soi 11 is particularly bad where in one narrow stretch of pavement there are 2-3 beggars sitting, blocking the pathway. Some of them kids. If you're not paying attention you could easily step on them - which is probably why they sit there (someone stepping on them would be more likely to give out money as an apology).

 

Then there are the beggar kids all around Aloft. They are particularly annoying and will run after you and tug at you. Some won't go away even if you tell them "mai" (no). They're often with some lady orchestrating them, but I doubt she's their real mother as there's too many kids - more likely she's the "mama-san" and they are the workers.

 

So yes - by all means take those people off the street. Kids should be in school, not working nights for some evil lady who probably beats them if they don't make enough - which is why they're so desperate. I feel sorry for them, but I never give them money because that just perpetuates the problem - the more they earn, the more kids the bitch will put on the street.

3 hours ago, PingRoundTheWorld said:

I feel sorry for them, but I never give them money because that just perpetuates the problem

 

I love how the middle-upper class likes to use this excuse to feel good about their conscious without doing crap.

 

The beggars will be gone for now, But later they will emerge as thieves, muggers, drug dealers, killers And not just irritating scammers..

 

 

Edited May 2, 20197 yr by LongTang

9 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The new law required beggars to admit to life quality development and protection centres or quit panhandling. Once they are admitted to such centres, they would not be allowed to leave the centres without permission or face a maximum one-month jail term and/or a maximum fine of Bt10,000. 

A 10 k fine for a beggar now thats a bright idea!

Now if you fined the parasitic orange thieves that would be better idea

I don't have a problem with the beggars. None have ever been "aggressive" with me. I can choose to give or not. Sometimes I'll give a few baht and sometimes a meal. If I see someone deformed or an amputee I'll almost certainly give something. Drunks and druggies I'll usually just pass by. I surely would rather give what I want, to whom I want myself than to some government agency.

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

to stop them from giving cash to beggars as it is illegal. 

The new thailand, soon being poor will be illegal

29 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

The new thailand, soon being poor will be illegal

The world over

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Beggars face fine and jail under new law

Damn! There goes my retirement plan!

Quote

A recent meeting of the Beggar Control Committee ...

You can't call it that, no way. Haha ... sounds like they view it like pest control and at least dogs have laws to protect them. With all these new crimes with disproportionate penalties then the generals might want to start building some new prisons.

Now u are begging to be bugged by buggering a begging beggar, it beggars belief.

2 years jail time for aiding a beggar...what if you pay to bugger a beggar?   [emoji15]

Thai Law, that well-known oxymoron, gets more absurd daily!  How do you fine a beggar 10,000 baht?

Donate cash to MSDHS?  What does this ministry do to justify its air-conditioned offices?

And what about the gangs that "manage" many of these beggars..?

Anyway, fining a beggar 5000--10000 is just dopey ....!

6 minutes ago, mikebell said:

Thai Law, that well-known oxymoron, gets more absurd daily!  How do you fine a beggar 10,000 baht?

Donate cash to MSDHS?  What does this ministry do to justify its air-conditioned offices?

People who are fined in Thailand can serve jail time in lieu of paying the fine.  I can't remember if the rate is 500 or 200 baht per day off of your fine for time served.  So a 10,000 baht fine would be 'paid off' with either 20 or 50 days in jail. 

This "Crack down" happened a couple years ago in KRS i remember it lasted about a month

and JUST who is going to enforce this so called law??

Can not BE done.......

Does this include Youtube and GoFundme beggars?