Shortly before six in the morning on Wednesday, officers arrived at Sergels torg near the city’s central station and told a group of Roma beggars that they should remove their belongings before eight o’clock, otherwise they would be thrown away.
According to one rough sleeper speaking to Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the beggars were told that the area had become “too dirty”.
Towe Hägg, a spokesperson for Stockholm police told the newspaper that the square was a “commercial area” and that mattresses and cardboard boxes currently being kept there amounted to a violation of Sweden’s Public Order Act.
Most of them are members of the Roma community – one of the EU’s largest minority groups – and arrive as EU tourists fleeing poverty under the right to Freedom of Movement.
Speaking to The Local after the evacuation on Wednesday, Veronica Wollgast Karlberg, project manager at the city's Social Services Department told said: "It went very well. It was calm. We have had social workers in the area talking to this group for several weeks to inform them about the laws and the different alternatives they have regarding where to sleep. So they were not shocked this morning".
The parties agreed on a joint statement to be signed at an EU summit on March 9th.
"We will create a framework for how we will share experiences on successful measures," said Rovana Plumb, who is Minister for Labour, Family, Social Protection and Elderly in Romania.