Begging in Bangkok: Life on the streets

We often hear stories about beggars being forced onto the streets by evil traffickers, but yesterday social workers only found willing poor people on day one of a new registration campaign.

Please join us on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning

A Social Development and Human Security Ministry official talks to a blind beggar on a footbridge at the Victory Monument yesterday. Photos by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin.

27 beggars rounded up off city streets

Lamphai Intathep

Everyone who registered on the first day of a drive to monitor beggars in Bangkok insists they took to the streets of their own free will and were not forced to by traffickers.

Loon, a 78-year-old blind beggar, said yesterday he begs so he can afford to send his daughter to university.

"If not begging, what else can I do to earn money to raise my only child," said Mr Loon who declined to give his surname.

He said he sits and begs every day on a pavement underneath the BTS skywalk at Victory Monument.

"I have to beg to look after my daughter who is in the middle of her first year at university. I am too old and blind which means there is nothing else that I can do," he said.

He told the Bangkok Post he started begging back in 1998 after he lost his eyesight as a result of an accident at work.

Mr Loon claimed he can earn a few hundred baht on weekdays but that amount could reach as much as 1,800 baht at weekends, while his daughter also brings in cash by selling lottery tickets.

However, this is not enough, he said.

"I have to find a further 4,000 baht for my daughter's tuition fees as her next semester starts very soon. Police have arrested me more times than I can remember."

Asked if he would continue with begging on the street after being released, Mr Loon said, "yes".

Mr Loon was among 27 beggars picked up and taken to the Baan Mitmaitree shelter for registration and to investigate their social circumstances on the first day of a seven-day operation, starting yesterday, to monitor beggars in Bangkok. The operation was launched by the Social Development and Human Security Ministry.

Of those picked up, 10 people were Thais and the rest were foreigners, including four migrant children.

Accompanied by her 6-year-old son, 26-year-old Chuan from Cambodia was picked up while begging on an overpass next to Rajavithi Hospital.

She said she came to Thailand with her husband after a broker arranged jobs for them on a construction site. However, she was laid off without reason and then abandoned by her Cambodian husband. This forced her onto the street to start begging.

She said she can earn about 500 baht a day and sleeps in public places. She and her son were taken to the Immigration Bureau for questioning and deportation.

Not a beggar: Students playing music on the streets for money is not begging, the officials decided.

Dressed in student uniforms, three girls were found playing reed-mouth organs by an escalator by the Victory Monument skytrain station. The youngest was 7 and the others were 13.

They said they play music on the street during school breaks and earn 500 baht each per day. Authorities decided they were not beggars and left them alone.

"All the beggars we saw insisted they decided to take to the streets themselves mainly for economic reasons," said Anusan Thienthong, deputy director-general of the Department of Social Development and Welfare, who led yesterday's drive.

"We are not seeking to clear away the beggars, but to know why they are begging and whether they are forced to beg on the streets, so we can help solve their problems," he said. Shelter, job training, education and other social services will be provided to help them return to mainstream society.

"If they are forced into begging or are victims of human trafficking, legal assistance and help will be provided," Mr Anusan said. Similar projects will take place elsewhere such as Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Khon Kaen.

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/437693/begging-in-bangkok-life-on-the-streets