Proposition 53K2818

Projet de loi portant répression de l'exploitation de la mendicité et de la prostitution, de la traite et du trafic des êtres humains en fonction du nombre de victimes.

General information ¶

Submitted by

The Senate

Submission date

Sept. 12, 2011

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

mendicity fine trafficking in human beings criminal law penalty

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA MR VB

Contact form ¶

Do you have a question or request regarding this proposition? Select the most appropriate option for your request and I will get back to you shortly.

Discussion ¶

June 12, 2013 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to my written report.

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Minister, dear colleagues, we support this law, we are in principle for this, because the more victims are made in such a matter, the heavier the sanction must be. We cannot afford in our civilized Western society to allow the exploitation of begging and prostitution.

However, we have some concerns about this bill. What will be the effect in practice? If we obtain a good judgment on the basis of this law, how will it be executed against, for example, a Romanian gang? Even if one succeeds in collecting certain fines, what will it improve the condition of the person concerned here, in particular the beggar?

In order to take effective measures that are necessary, I will also refer to what was written and concluded earlier, namely the National Security Plan 2004-2007 within the framework of the Action Plan against Trafficking in Human Beings. It was then stated that it was intended that the police would conduct as many checks on the beggarry as possible, with the aim of identifying and thereby discovering structures. However, after several years, there were no accurate figures and little information was available. These noble goals have thus proved to be somewhat an empty box.

On the ground — an ordinary city visit to Gent or Brussels makes this already clear — one notices that the beggarship continues to thrive. A working group focused on Brussels was set up, but the problem should not be shifted, of course. If it was resolved in one city, it is not intended to spread to other cities. There needs to be a global approach.

Let us go back in time. In 1993 the law on land looting and begging was abolished. In fact, a different principle was adopted, in which the beggar was no longer considered a criminal but a victim, to be given new opportunities and to be integrated into society.

To solve this problem, an appeal was made to the OCMW. The OCMW was given more responsibilities and more opportunities. In the meantime, it is 20 years later and we see that the situation on the ground today is not at all good. A number of those who are not eligible for OCMW support are among the beggars, which previously did not or barely existed.

Some cities sought to provide a solution by incorporating provisions into their police regulations to prohibit begging. This was the case in Brussels in 1998. In practice, however, this hardly works. Also, certain cities have included those provisions in their regulations and were subsequently shipped back by the Council of State, which stated that one could not include that provision in so far as it had a permanent character. In spite of the good intentions, there is no solution.

I conclude that something will have to happen. I hope that the working group working on this will conclude its report in the near future and express its views. From parliamentary questions and answers, I was able to conclude that whether or not to re-criminalize begging for the Minister of Justice depends on what the working group decides. However, we can’t get rid of the impression that more and more votes are gathering for re-criminalization. The Dutch model will also be supported. There they work with compulsory care trails, which impose reception for beggars. In this way, people who stay illegally can be detected and sent back.

In short, there is work in the store. I hope the government finds the time to come up with a draft. If Parliament does not have to be willing to work seriously across party boundaries, we want to ensure that the problem does not rise more often.

The fight against human trafficking has been high on the national and international political agenda for more than fifteen years. Contrary to the current legal provisions, in the present draft, when punishing trafficking in human beings, the penalty imposed is now linked to the number of victims.

The bill comes from the Senate and is in line with the action plan that I developed with State Secretary De Block on human trafficking and human trafficking. This is a very important design.