AMMNA — The Anti-Vagrancy Department arrested 197 beggars during Eid al-Adha vacation, according to Assistant Secretary-General of the Ministry of Social Development, Mahmoud Jabour, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
During the department's campaigns, he said 46 male and 56 female beggars were arrested and 54 and 41 male and female juveniles, respectively.
In an interview with "Petra" on Thursday, he noted the ministry is "working hard" to reduce this phenomenon and has strengthened its effort by intensifying joint campaigns in cooperation with Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and the Public Security Directorate (PSD).
This effort is also supported by enhancing societal awareness of the phenomenon's causes and effects, he pointed out.
Stiffening penalties for the begging crime, per the amended Article 389 of Penal Code No. 10 of 2022, will contribute to reducing the number of beggars' numbers and mitigating the phenomenon's negative effects, as the article has been in force since the first of this July, he said.
In this regard, the penalty was raised to a 1-year jail instead of a three-month term. In contrast, the forced labor sentence was raised to two years, while repeat offenders will now get increased imprisonment for a period of no less than six months to a year. Discretionary mitigating reasons are excluded, he noted.
The citizen, he noted, is a partner to the concerned authorities in combating the phenomenon by raising public awareness and reducing the begging rates at the societal level.
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