Report for the Study on Typology and Policy Responses to Child Begging in the EU

This comparative report brings together the results of research carried out in thirteen EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden and the UK) and Kosovo and Albania, forming part of the overall Study on the typology and policy responses to child begging in the European Union, which comprises an EU level, a national level and a local level, with desk research and interviews for each of these levels, to provide a comprehensive picture of the child begging phenomenon.

This report focuses on various aspects of the phenomenon, its characteristics, how it is legislated for and what responses are in place, aiming to sketch out the situation in countries under study, including any recent changes. While data is available to show that child begging is, or has been, an issue in all of the countries under study, its magnitude and characteristics vary widely in the fifteen countries, as will be shown in this Report. This research is complemented by the comparative study of local case studies carried out in cities in fifteen countries, and the Typology of child begging.