Cities reject state government’s plan to help and control beggars

City governments in Oslo, Bergen, Tromsø and Bodø are among those turning down new funding offered by the left-center state government to both accommodate and control Norway’s growing problems posed by migrant beggars. The cities claim the state’s plan is unworkable and won’t help. Justice Minister Grete Faremo of the Labour Party finally unveiled how [...]

Majority backs a ban on begging

Six out of 10 Norwegians now want a nationwide ban on begging, according to the results of a new public opinion poll. The poll indicates that a clear majority of Norwegians think a ban on begging will discourage migrant poor from coming to Norway to beg, but the country’s left-center government won’t impose one. The [...]

Beggar debate heats up

Police in Norway are bracing for another influx of beggars expected to arrive in Norway this summer from various countries around Europe. A state government proposal to require them to register with police has met mixed reaction and already been vetoed by city officials in Oslo. State prosecutors, Oslo police and several opposition politicians in [...]

New begging restrictions loom

State officials from various political parties are once again mounting efforts to limit begging on the streets of Oslo and elsewhere in Norway. While proposals range from an outright ban to time restrictions, many of the Roma people who now do the most begging in Oslo went along with orders to break up their latest [...]

City gives in to calls for migrant toilets

The head of Oslo’s city government, Stian Berger Røsland, has backed down from his refusal to provide migrant poor in Oslo, mostly Roma folk from Romania and Bulgaria, with free public toilets. City officials have set up portable toilets after all, at two areas where the migrants are camping illegally. Newspaper Aftenposten reported Friday that [...]

Roma folk won some support

Around 100 persons turned out for a demonstration earlier this week against the harsh criticism that’s been directed against Roma folk in Norway this summer. The show of support was supposed to take place last week, but was cancelled after its main organizer received death threats. Elise Karlsen of Laksvåg withdrew because of the threats, [...]

Roma groups win some reprieves

Police in Oslo decided not to raid a large camp on Friday that’s been set up illegally by migrant poor Roma near the lake Sognsvann. Roma in Trondheim also found a new place to camp, but both situations are temporary. The migrant poor, who mostly come from Romania and Bulgaria to beg on the streets [...]

Roma dispute spurs ugly incidents

Police are once again being called upon to resolve increasingly ugly incidents over whether or how Norwegians should accommodate migrant poor from Europe. As state and local officials fail to find solutions themselves, and hold each other responsible for the migrants, police are now being asked to investigate charges of racism. News bureau NTB reported [...]

Lawmakers may restore begging ban

As migrant beggars were ordered to leave their latest mass campsite in Oslo, and others set up new tents outside the national cathedral in Trondheim on Tuesday, government officials are now considering restoring a ban on begging that was revoked six years ago. Police want begging to again be prohibited, because of the crime they [...]

Love and solidarity aside: Norwegians also resort to messages of hate

Despite all the reports and declarations about how Norwegians pulled together after last year’s terrorist attacks, many remain clearly outside the realm of compassion and solidarity. Politicians regularly receive disturbing messages of hatred and racism, forcing their advisers to remove them from their social media sites and other sources of online public debate. “We have [...]

Migrants ordered to move on again

This summer’s odyssey of migrant poor in Oslo entered a new chapter on Friday when they once again were ordered to break camp and move out of a gravel pit where many had settled last weekend. City officials changed their minds about the camp for the second time, re-declaring it as unsafe, and this time [...]

Migrants allowed to stay in gravel pit

City officials changed their minds on Tuesday and decided to withdraw an order to evacuate a camp set up in a gravel pit for migrant poor who have arrived in Norway this summer, mostly from Romania and Bulgaria. The officials decided that after some basic improvements, the property wasn’t as hazardous as they had first [...]

Hostility rises against migrants

Tempers are rising against hundreds of migrants in Oslo, most of them Roma folk from Romania and Bulgaria, who continue to camp illegally in the Norwegian capital. Some Norwegians, frustrated over what they see as a lack of respect by the migrants for local authorities and residents, are threatening violence if the police or government [...]

Roma campers land in new conflict

Around 200 migrants from southeastern Europe, who claim to be looking for work in Oslo but mostly resort to begging, have landed in yet another conflict after settling in a privately owned gravel pit over the weekend. This time the conflict involves the owners of the gravel pit and residents of an adjacent residential neighbourhood.  [...]

Foreign aid hasn’t hindered begging

Several Norwegian politicians have claimed recently that the best way to halt an influx of beggars to Norway is to keep extending foreign aid to their poverty-stricken homelands, to help them stay home. Many of those now in Oslo, though, are from Romania, a country that’s already receiving billions in foreign aid from Norway. That [...]

Next Page »