Beggars Can Be Choosers

[george]

Beggars can be choosers: UN agency

BANGKOK: -- The "begging business" is so profitable that a beggar can earn up to Bt10,000 a month, prompting many Cambodian beggars to come to Thailand, the UN Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (UNIAP) said yesterday.

At a Bangkok meeting attended by representatives from the Thai and Cambodian governments, UNIAP project coordinator Panadda Changmanee said a study was conducted on 140 Cambodian child beggars, some of whom were begging and some who are now under the care of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry.

The study - as part of the Friends International's research on foreign child beggars in Bangkok - found that 80 per cent of the Cambodian children came to Thailand with their mothers or relatives. Nine per cent of them were disabled and 41 per cent were infants and toddlers. They begged in the streets of Bangkok and Pattaya from eight to 18 hours a day.

While 22.6 per cent earned between Bt251 and Bt300 a day, 18.9 per cent earned between Bt751 and Bt1,000, and one child beggar in Bangkok's Sanam Luang reported to earn Bt1,500 to Bt2,000 a day, Panadda said.

This is more than Bangkok's minimum daily wage of Bt184, she added.

Most beggars travelled by bus from Poipet to Mor Chit bus terminal before starting to beg on the streets of Bangkok, Pathum Thani and Chon Buri.

As for the Thai attitude towards Cambodian child beggars, it was found that 30 per cent of Thais interviewed gave money to Cambodian child beggars, while 70 per cent admitted they used to give money to beggars.

About 60 per cent said they gave between Bt1 to Bt10 to beggars and about 41 per cent gave money to beggars twice a month, Panadda said.

Calculated at an average of Bt5 per time, giving to beggars twice a month or more would mean that Thai people spent about Bt21 million on beggars every month, she said.

"The new information is that children come with their mothers or relatives due to poverty - not because they are victims of human trafficking. They come willingly and enjoy begging because it yields a lot of money. Even when they are deported to their home country, they keep returning.

"The Thai and Cambodian governments are working together to tackle the problem by setting up a help centre in Cambodia to support those deported by the Thai government," she said.

Social Welfare Service Office Director, Pakorn Phanthu, said Social Development and Human Security Ministry's survey this year found there were 1,453 beggars - 44 per cent were Thais, the rest were foreigners.

The worrying find was that 42 per cent of the foreign beggars were children and 43 per cent women and they came to beg willingly, though some were lured into begging.

Pakorn said the ministry was working with Cambodia to establish a centre to take care of victims so they go back to beg.

Meanwhile, a draft legislation of the Control of Beggars Act 1941 - which stipulates it is a criminal offence to force children, women and disabled people to beg - is now at the Council of State for consideration, he said.

--The Nation 2007-06-19