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Comment by dd_roger | Hacker News Reader

> Related news: European Court of Human Rights just made important ruling that decriminalizes begging. Making it criminal to be poor is against human rights.

Lol, you're taking a very ungenuine shortcut. Legal residents who also happen to be poor do not resort to begging because they receive help through the appropriate welfare programs. The the overwhelming large majority of people affected by this law are foreigners who take advantage of Schengen to come to a rich country only for begging. These people have no legitimity of being here and earn no sympathy from me.

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I sure that we both can agree that

- illegitimacy or being foreigners does not remove human rights and human dignity.

- feelings or sympathy or lack of them should not be taken account when administering justice or government policy.

ps. Roma from Romania are not illegitimate. They are free to move across Europe. Free travel is also for the poor. Swiss voters reject bid to curb EU freedom of movement https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-voters-reject-bid-to-curb-eu-fre...

>Swiss voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to limit the free movement of people and immigration from the European Union.

> Roma from Romania are not illegitimate. They are free to move across Europe.

Note that freedom of movevement inside EU/EEA is not unrestricted (like, say, inside USA), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%27_Rights_Directive :

> To be fully covered by the European right of free movement, the EEA citizen needs to exercise one of the four treaty rights:

> - working as an employee (this includes looking for work for a reasonable amount of time),

> - working as a self-employed person,

> - studying,

> - being self-sufficient or retired.

Romania isn't in Schengen so yes, they are illegitimate. But you're the only one talking about Roma here.

What should be taken into account for policy making is the interest of the country's citizens (and non-national legal residents to a lesser extent), not "begging tourists".

Freedom of movement also applies to citizens of non-Schengen EU countries.

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