Brussels, 03/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The economic crisis and gloom fuels racism and European governments must remedy this. This was the statement and request made on 3 May by the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). In its annual report, ECRI also speaks of the speeches made after the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, relating to the need to recast the Schengen agreements and the possibility of bringing back internal border controls. Such discourse, mainly delivered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and backed by Germany during the last Council of Home Affairs Ministers of the EU27 in Luxembourg, has added to fuelling xenophobia, ECRI said.
The Council of Europe commission formed of independent experts said: “Welfare cuts, diminished job opportunities and a consequent rise in intolerance towards both immigrant groups and older historical minorities are worrying trends emerging from ECRI's country by country visits during 2011.” “Xenophobic rhetoric is now part of mainstream debate and extremists are increasingly using social media to channel their views, whilst discrimination against the Roma continues to worsen”, ECRI states with concern.
The current economic crisis has created a vicious circle in which many vulnerable groups are enclosed, ECRI writes. It continues by stating in its report that, due to the fewer economic possibilities and cuts in social programmes, these groups slide into poverty, which fuels negative feelings that widen the social divide. The old myths about the influence held by some groups in the financial world are coming to light again, ECRI states, saying the “multiculturalist” model is, moreover, brought into question and discrimination in the workplace is omnipresent.
ECRI also bemoans the fact that a number of countries were unable to manage the flow of migrants and asylum seekers in 2011 saying that returns are sometimes carried out too soon and that hosting conditions are mediocre. Among the problems encountered, there are rapid repatriation of certain arrivals and bad conditions for hosting arrivals, hence considerable tension with local populations, while, in some countries, the asylum processing systems have failed completely, ECRI states. The “police culture”, which seems to have prevailed in facing the flow of migrants, has also been detrimental to relations between countries of the Schengen area. Ensuing discussions on bringing back internal border controls have also fuelled the xenophobic discourse, the commission states, expressing concern about attacks against the Roma and the attempt made by some governments of the Council of Europe to reduce the means available to national institutions for defending human rights, using the economic crisis as a pretext for making cuts.
In early March, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) had published a similar report also denouncing the rise in intolerance in the 27-member Europe and voicing concern about the growing success of far-right parties, such as the PVV of the Netherlands, the French Front National with its historic score during the first round of the French presidential elections, and the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn, which could win several seats during the legislative elections on 6 May. (SP/transl.jl)