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The city's police have announced a crackdown on what they've described as 'aggressive begging' which they say has skyrocketed in Finland's major cities in the last year.
The so-called 'blitz' has led to the near-disappearance of beggars from streets on Helsinki and Oulu police are pursuing a similar policy.
The culprits are described by Jussi Huhtela of Oulu police as, 'mainly ethnic Roma from Romania.' In addition to begging, they hawk certain items such as binoculars and jewellery as well as busking.
'We encourage people not to give them money,' said the officer. 'People are still handing them money or we wouldn't be having this problem.'
The news comes in the same week that five people described simply as 'Romanian' have been arrested in Oulu suspected of stealing people's wallets. They group consists of men and women between the ages of twenty and thirty. They are accused of loitering by ATMs, following customers and picking their pockets.
The incident has provoked a furious response on the online version of Kaleva with some readers writing, 'Throw them out of the country!' and 'This is what we get if we join the EU.' Other posters have called for calm.
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