At roughly 50 meters from each other they are sitting on the Vredenburgplein, two men from Romania. They both have a cardboard sign next to them on which it is written in marker that they are hungry, homeless. Under his fleece blanket, one of them scrolls through his phone until he notices our presence. He is homeless, he says, and sleeps on the street, here on Vredenburgplein. Although they are a lot apart, they do belong together. “Yes, he is my friend”, one of them confirms.
Suddenly ‘commercial beggars’ are back in Utrecht, discussion about a ban on begging is back
