Vinh City struggles to deal with the problem of beggars

Ward and commune authorities are indifferent.

Just at dawn on a day in early March, at the intersection in front of Vinh market, we saw the silhouettes of 3 beggars appear. As soon as they appeared, they quickly split up into different corners. One person sat under the traffic light from Phan Dinh Phung street to the intersection, another person sat on the street, his back leisurely leaning against the median strip at the corner of Quang Trung street. Another person sat on the opposite side. Not to mention, another person sat in front of the main hall area at Vinh market about 200m away. It seemed that here, the positions were clearly divided into "territories", no one dared to take each other's positions, even if they arrived earlier.

“They have been working since very early. They have not just arrived. They have just come from Vinh wholesale market to beg for money,” said an elderly woman who sews shoes on the side of the road. “They get a lot of money. We work hard all day but it is not as much as their small amount,” the woman added.

Begging at the end of Le Hong Phong Street. Photo: Tien Hung

At the same time, we arrived at the roundabout between Nguyen Phong Sac, Le Hong Phong, Le Nin, Truong Thi, and Vo Nguyen Hien streets. There were also 4 beggars operating here. Of these, 2 people "occupied prime positions" at the foot of the red light, from Nguyen Phong Sac Street. The remaining 2 people shared positions in the red light area from Le Hong Phong Street. Just waiting for the red light to appear, these people quickly weaved through the crowded vehicles that were stopped in the middle of the road, taking off their hats to beg for money. When it was past rush hour, the number of vehicles gradually decreased, and they began to take out their money to count. Some people leisurely took out their smartphones to entertain themselves. During the morning of their activities here, many times they even went to the toilet right there, making many passersby feel embarrassed.

“Sometimes the authorities come to check and chase them away. But after chasing them away from one place, they go to another. Then the next day they appear again to continue asking for money. One time we saw that after the inspection, the next day there were even more people than the day before,” said a taxi driver who regularly parks here.

A beggar stands on Tran Phu Street, in Hong Son Ward, on the afternoon of March 6. However, the ward leader confirmed that "there is none". Photo: Tien Hung

Similarly, beggars are also common in areas such as the Triangle intersection; the intersection between Nguyen Van Cu Street and Nguyen Sy Sach Street, Le Hong Phong Street; the intersection between Pham Dinh Toai Street and Le Nin Avenue. In response to this situation, on February 24, Nghe An Newspaper published an article reflecting on the beggars besieging Vinh streets. Mr. Thai Thanh Ha - Head of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Vinh City admitted that the number of beggars has increased recently, and said that the unit will establish a working group to deal with this problem.

On February 27, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Vinh City also issued a document on strengthening direction to resolve the situation of homeless people begging for food and money in the area to the Chairmen of the People's Committees of wards and communes and the Head of the Vinh Market Management Board. This document stated that in order to resolve the situation of homeless people begging for food and money in the area, the city has issued many directive documents in the past. However, through monitoring, some wards and communes have not implemented the directive effectively. Propaganda, patrolling and inspection work has not been regular. Mainly, only measures have been used to expel people from the area. Approaching, verifying the circumstances, relatives, classifying subjects to coordinate with relevant agencies and units to handle them thoroughly are still very few. In addition, many wards and communes do not periodically report on implementation results.

“Implementing the direction of the Vinh City People's Committee, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs requests the Chairmen of the People's Committees of wards and communes, and the Head of the Vinh Market Management Board to strictly implement the city's directive documents, strengthen the direction and implementation of synchronous and effective solutions to resolve the situation of homeless people begging for food and money in the area. Report the implementation results to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs before the 25th of each month, to synthesize and report to the City People's Committee,” the document stated.

For areas where there are currently frequent beggars, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs recommends that the Chairmen of the People's Committees of the wards strengthen the direction of functional forces to regularly patrol, screen, detect, approach subjects, make records, organize verification of circumstances, search for relatives, permanent residence, determine the hometown of the subject to have a final handling plan according to the instructions in the document of the Vinh City People's Committee issued from July 2022. Take the lead in coordinating with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to organize, bring and hand over beggars of unknown addresses to social protection facilities in the province.

Two beggars sitting together on Nguyen Phong Sac Street. Photo: Tien Hung

"Kidnapping and Leaving the Disk"

Although Vinh city has set up a working group and issued documents urging ward leaders, according to reporters, the situation of beggars on the streets of Vinh in recent days has not decreased. "We have tried very hard, but we must admit that the solutions implemented in the past time are just like 'kidnapping and throwing away the plate'. The results are not high", said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Duong - Deputy Head of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Mr. Duong has just been assigned to be the head of the team to handle the situation of beggars in the area.

Mr. Duong said that according to the procedure, after receiving a report of a beggar, the working group will go to the scene to check. If the area belongs to a ward, the functional forces of that ward will be called. Then, they will begin to verify the identity of each person. In case the residence and relatives of the beggar are determined, the ward is responsible for sending a vehicle to take them home to hand them over to the family and local authorities for management. At the same time, the family, relatives and guardians are required to sign a commitment not to let them continue to wander around and be homeless, with confirmation from the local authorities.

In case the place of residence cannot be determined or the place of residence is determined but there is no one responsible for taking care of the person, it is necessary to coordinate with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to prepare a file for admission to social assistance facilities. However, this is only in theory.

“In reality, many people have families, we have taken them home many times to hand them over, asked for a commitment, but the next day they continued to see them on the streets of Vinh. Most of the beggars in Vinh city come from other localities, so we cannot direct the local authorities to monitor them and not let them continue to wander around,” said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Duong.

A woman with many years of experience begging on the streets of Vinh. Photo: Tien Hung

According to Mr. Duong, in cases where the place of residence cannot be determined or there is no one responsible for taking care of them, the authorities will make a record and send them to social assistance centers. “We have also sent quite a few people there. But those centers are not responsible for taking care of them for life, they only receive them temporarily. After a short time, they are sent back to their hometowns, then they return to Vinh city to beg. Others are sent there for a few days and then run away and continue to beg,” Mr. Duong said.

On the afternoon of March 6, we also worked with Mr. Tu Trong Hai - Chairman of the People's Committee of Hong Son Ward - the ward with the largest number of beggars, especially at Vinh market and intersections. However, Mr. Hai affirmed that there have been no beggars in the ward for a long time. "If there are any, we will come down and deal with them immediately," Mr. Hai said. Meanwhile, at the same time, we recorded 3 beggars at the intersection in front of Vinh market gate. Of which, 2 were standing at the corner of Tran Phu Street, in Hong Son Ward. The remaining person was working at the corner of Quang Trung Street, in Quang Trung Ward.

Tien Hung