Transparent Language
Polish Language Blog
Menu
Search

Watch out for the beggars! Posted by on Aug 24, 2012 in Culture

Wrocław is suffering a plague of aggressive beggars (agresywni żebracy), making life misery for the owners and customers of the city’s beer gardens. Attempts to move them on result in violent confrontations (gwałtowne starcia), while official fines make no difference.

“We’ve intervened over eighty times this month in cases of persistent begging” commented Slawomir Chelchowski of Wrocław City Guard.

The owner of Piwnica Świdnicka, Pani Beata (Mrs Beata), complained that attempts to move on gypsies women with small children who constantly pester guests are always met with aggression. They swear, they spit, they scratch. It’s an almost daily torment.

“Near the restaurant, there’s a fountain where the beggars like to go to the toilet, right in front of our customers,” she said.

City Guards are struggling to deal with the problem, particularly as even the highest fines they can impose have no effect. “Where we intervene, we can fine people up to PLN 500, but most of the gypsies pay up immediately, even using debit cards to do so”.

Visiting Poland every year, I always see that problem in city gardens (In Warsaw, Lublin, Wrocław and most of other cities). It usually happens in old towns, where there are the most tourists sitting outside…It is really annoying and it is true: if you say “no” or tell them to go away (even as a customer), they swear, spit, get in fights…

What do you think about this?

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

Keep learning Polish with us!

Build vocabulary, practice pronunciation, and more with Transparent Language Online. Available anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Try it Free Find it at your Library
Share this:
Share
Pin it

About the Author: Kasia

My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.

Comments:

  1. Lori:

    This happened to me in Lublin, but not any Roma people. I was walking in the Old Town on one of the evenings of Euro 2012 when a older man kept following me and begging. Finally in the best Polish I could use I said I didn’t understand Polish and only English, at which point this man changed to English!

    I’ve never had this happen before in my other visits to Poland.

  2. edward pindral:

    The authorities can not solve the problem, maybe they don’t want solve it if they receive PLN 500 each time these people are reported.

  3. Marie Reimers:

    I don’t think that Poland alone is having this problem. France has been sending these folks back to Romania – and they keep coming back. It would seem to me that this issue should be addressed by the EU as a whole. While respecting the rights and dignity of all people, there is a need for developing a strong policy to address the begging problem. We have encountered this also in Poland, and were even solicited inside the Mariatski in Cracow. Tourism is a financial plus for Poland as well as all the EU members. People might be less inclined, however, to spend Euros (or dollars) in areas where they might have to protect themselves from this type of confrontation.

  4. Michael:

    I just came back from Poland and encountered this many times, Wroclaw rynek was the worst. What annoyed me was that the owners or employees are sat there watching me get harassed by these beggars while I am sat in their establishment and they don’t intervene.
    One gypsy girl kept on for 5 minutes, I kept saying nic nie mam but in the end I had to relent to get rid of her and gave her 3 zloty, she wasn’t aggressive though she went for the sympathy vote and got it.