Britain's child beggars

[icecoldcoffee]

On BBC1 now.

So desperately sad. These poor romanian children have no life. Dragged around London all day till 10-11pm at night.

I could understand it if they were really desperate but they're taking the money home to Romania and living in relative luxury and driving around in BMWs.

These people are not fit to be parents.

Made me cry

It is very sad - those poor children

I've been watching too. Struggling to get my head around it. :(

Its horrific viewing, really sad. I cannot understand how these people are able to get away with doing this for so long without social services and /or the police doing something about it.

What a weak argument from the home office too. This issue is obvious around London. Poor children. Still cant really get my head round why it cant be dealt with.

I remember a romanian lady coming up to me on the tube maybe four or five years ago with a baby quite late at night. I told her off for using her baby for begging and said "why don't you take your baby home to bed?". My friend with me was a bit and said maybe she's desperate but a lot/most of them are working for others and don't even see the money. I did feel a bit guilty and thought she probably didn't have any choice and she maybe she was being forced to beg. The people running these begging gangs to line their own pockets deserve to rot in jail.

Even if some of them aren't being made to do it, you would still think that they would take more care of their kids and let them have a good nights sleep. Giving them cola and red bull to keep them going is child abuse.

Why are idiots giving them cash, doesn't everyone in this country know that if you have a kid that = roof over head and benefits.

if they want to beg on the streets like the worthless dogs they are, thats their business (literally), but I don't understand how binging kids into it makes it more profitable unless this country is a nation of fools who know not the rules of the land.

And yes I have been drinking thus my language is a tad flowery as such.

I live in London and don't bat an eyelid at swearing at them TBH, only a complete fool would not know they are on the take, I'm guessing it's tourists who don't know any better that give em cash, cos all I've ever seen people give em is lip and rightly so.

This was a big issue in Dublin about ten to five years ago but seems to have decreased a lot now (not sure why). I remember six or seven year old girls being sent into cafes to do the rounds of the customers with no accompanying adult in sight. Its scarey to think how vulnerable they must have been to abuse. I really don't get why social services didn't / don't intervene more.

PS Roma do have a horrible time of it in their native countries and often here too. If you do feel guilty about giving them nothing maybe its worth finding a charity working with Roma to donate to? This is prob what I would do if I still lived somewhere where it was an issue.

I felt very uncomfortable watching this. Undoubtably what we were shown was inexcusable, but how big a problem is it? How many families make their living doing it? The ease with which the film makers were able to pick up the same people time and time again and track them over several months suggests its a very small problem.

I am also extremely suspicious of the motivation of the BBC/ documentary makers showing it last night when Dale Farm was being emptied.

I can see why the programme was made. If it's a child protection issue then it needs exposing.

But I felt uncomfortable when the presenter was chasing the teenager/young mum with the baby in a pushchair. She was walking off and he was following her asking questions quite aggressively. Then later he said that possibly the young woman could be being forced to do it, so maybe she was a victim as well.

If she might be a victim why chase her down the street?