‘Authorities using iPads to record whereabouts of street beggars’

AMMAN — The Social Development Ministry has started utilising iPads in the process of detecting and detaining beggars around the Kingdom, its spokesperson said on Saturday.

Fawaz Ratrout added that using iPads in tracking the location of beggars would make the process of keeping them in police custody easier in a shorter time.

The devices were distributed to anti-vagrancy teams in Amman two weeks ago, according to Ratrout. 

“These gadgets will ensure the rapidity of exchanging and documenting information and locations of beggars, via the Internet, and contacting authorities accordingly,” he told The Jordan Times.

The tablet computers will be used to identify the most common areas and hours when beggars take to the streets, the spokesperson noted. 

Some 4,000 beggars, including 1,300 children, have been apprehended this year, the majority of them in the capital, followed by Irbid, Zarqa and Aqaba, Ratrout said.

Adult beggars detained by authorities are referred to police stations and then to court in accordance with the Penal Code, while juveniles are referred to care centres affiliated with the ministry, where they are rehabilitated. 

He added that another stage of the programme will be launched within the next few weeks in coordination with UNICEF to evaluate the phenomenon of beggars and formulate a structured plan to rehabilitate children caught begging on the streets. 

“It is not only considered begging, it is a form of child labour,” he noted.