Eskilstuna, a town to the west of Stockholm, has become the first in the country to introduce a licence fee for beggars, meaning anyone who wants to ask people for money on the street will have to pay for a permit.
A 34-year-old man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for luring two homeless men to Sweden from Romania and then forcing them to beg for money for up to 12 hours a day.
The number of homeless beggars from Romania and Bulgaria living in Sweden is as high as it was three years ago, according to the new government figures.
Police in the Malmö commuter town of Vellinge have started cracking down on beggars, a fortnight after Sweden’s top administrative court said its begging ban could go ahead.
Six Bulgarians who brought people from their native country and made them beg for money in Sweden have been found guilty of human trafficking and sent to prison.
As many as 60 people Bulgarians were exploited in Sweden, forced to beg on the streets and hand over their money to the masterminds who brought them into the country, prosecutors said on Friday.
Begging does not disturb the public order, a Swedish county administrative board said when it rejected the city of Eskiltuna's bid to make people apply for a permit before begging for money.
The Swedish branch of Amnesty International has heard witness accounts from beggars who say they have been harassed and moved by police while begging, Aftonbladet reports.
Sweden's first ever begging ban has been overturned by an administrative court on the grounds that those collecting money do not cause enough of a public disturbance.
The Swedish government wants to tighten laws in order to stop people from being exploited as beggars, creating a new crime of “human exploitation” as well as increasing the punishment for other crimes in the area.
A large group of people have been detained in Sweden after police launched an offensive against a begging ring in the south of the country which allegedly transported Bulgarian citizens to Sweden in order to beg, then took their earnings.
A county administrative board on Monday overturned Sweden's first begging ban after ruling that the collection of money did not amount to disturbance of public order.
A human rights organization has launched an appeal against a potential begging ban that moved one step closer to becoming the first of its kind in Sweden after a municipal council gave its approval.
Sweden could ban begging, a minister has said, in a move that could open up a fissure in the governing coalition. Hundreds of people from the Roma communities of Bulgaria and Romania currently travel to Sweden to beg on the streets.
Revellers are flocking to Stockholm to take part in the 2016 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, but it seems not everyone is welcome at the city’s specially designated fan zone.
Swedish police have been given the go ahead to maintain a controversial register of Roma beggars, after a surveillance watchdog ruled that they were doing nothing illegal.
