Panhandlers and others who recruit minors for beggary will face stiffer penalties under the new penal code, which will take effect on July 1.
The amendment to Article No. 389 of Penal Code No. 10 of 2022 would help in removing beggars from the streets and mitigating the impacts of “this undesirable phenomenon”, Ashraf Khreis, media spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Development, said on Tuesday.
Khreis asserted in a statement to Petra that panhandling practice and repetition, as well as beggars’ use of new modes of operation, had called for heavier punishments.
Beggary is now penalized with up to a year in prison rather than the previous three months under the new law. The legislation also doubled the penalty for forced labor to two years, with progressive increases for repeat offenders by six months to a year in prison, and no longer allows for discretionary mitigating circumstances.
A panhandler, according to the law, is someone who begs for money from strangers on the basis of an ailment or handicap that he has or fabricates, whether he is walking or sitting in a public location.
The definition also encompasses any individual who leads or is found with a juvenile under the age of sixteen to beg and collect alms or encourages him to do so.
Furthermore, the law targets those who sell “frivolous” goods or show games or other works that cannot be a serious source of income in and of themselves, with the intent of begging or using any other form of deception to elicit sympathy from the public, or who collect alms or charitable donations of any kind based on a false allegation.
Khreis urged citizens not to be misled by beggars’ looks and fraudulent claims, saying that panhandlers are increasingly utilizing beggary as a profession to making large sums of money effortlessly.
Source: Jordan News Agency