On August 1, the municipality of Eskilstuna introduced the disputed requirement that beggars must have permission to request money in certain places in the municipality.

An application for referral

Since then, ten people have applied for a permit from the Police Authority and eight of the applications had been granted at lunchtime on Monday. One has not been handled because it has not been paid and one has been sent on referral to the municipality.

- It is the police's job to decide whether it is appropriate or not, but the municipality's starting point is that the places that we have pointed out are basically not optimal for this type of activity, says Jimmy Jansson (S), chairman of the local council.

"Forcing contact"

Did you take this into account when you submitted the passive fundraising proposal?

- Yes, you can count on all possible scenarios when such a proposal is presented. The aim has, after all, been primarily to force contact with society and, by extension, to remove people who are in this situation from our streets, says Jimmy Jansson.

But now you have not succeeded any more in removing these people from the streets. Isn't that a failure then?

- No, you can't draw that conclusion. After all, there can't be as many people in every place, and just because you get permission in one place doesn't mean it's possible in another place. And a place where you get permission now you might not get permission for later, says Jimmy Jansson.

Someone might say that Eskilstuna has now institutionalized begging. What are you responding to?

- No, the begging has well institutionalized itself. It was there from the beginning what is happening now is that we are starting to take government control of it. It is about gaining control of a completely unregulated business and in that way gradually trying to remove the begging from our streets.