Raids on street vagrants to continue: Agency

JAKARTA (JP): The City Public Order Agency will continue to round up vagrants in its effort to preserve order in the streets although many will subsequently find their way back, an official said on Friday.

The administration is having difficulty dealing with vagrants in spite of a joint effort involving various agencies to move them off Jakarta's streets, Tonni Boediono, head of the public facility of the Public Order Agency, said.

The campaign to handle "people with social problems" has been made even more difficult during the current economic crisis, he said. Programs designed to improve their welfare, including vocational training, have proved fruitless, Tonni said.

"It is mainly due to their mentality, which tends to ignore the law, and lack of skill which drives them to choose to live on the streets," he said, adding that their presence is a major cause of public disturbance.

Various agencies for social services, public order, manpower, health, education, land transportation control and the city police are involved in the endeavor.

There were at least 79,500 "people with social problems" roaming the streets of Jakarta in 1999, according to official estimates.

The administration has routinely rounded them up. Those under the age of 18 are returned to their parents or sent to an orphanage. Some are sent for vocational training and later given jobs, while others are sent back to their hometowns.

Many who are given jobs, however, drop out and return to their previous activities after only four or five days, Tonni said.

Most vagrants believe they can make more money selling snacks or directing traffic than if they had proper work, such as street sweeping, he said.

An official at the City Social Services Bureau, Dudung Supriadi, said residents could help the administration's effort to preserve order in the streets by not buying from people hawking goods at intersections.

Dudung pointed out a 1998 bylaw on public order which bans people from selling in the streets.

"The public could help restore order by not buying things sold by vagrants and therefore discouraging their activities," he said. (06)