Black people are increasingly discriminated against in the EU, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has warned.
In a report published on Wednesday 25 October, the FRA found that 45% of respondents had been discriminated against because of their skin colour in the last 5 years, compared with 39% in 2016. The figure is as high as 70% in Austria and Germany. “Yet, discrimination remains invisible as only 9% report it”, the Agency points out.
Furthermore, for the FRA, discrimination affects all areas. For example, 30% of respondents said they had experienced “racist harassment”, 31% said they had been racially discriminated against when looking for accommodation and 34% when looking for a job.
In the light of these findings, the Agency has drawn up a series of recommendations to the EU: - properly enforce anti-discrimination legislation as well as effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions; - identify and record hate crimes, and consider bias motivation as an aggravating circumstance; - ensure that equality bodies have the necessary mandates and resources to tackle discrimination and support victims (see EUROPE 13233/10); - collect equality data, including on “ethnic or racial origin”; - take steps to eradicate racism in the police (see EUROPE 13216/10); - develop specific policies to address racism and racial discrimination in education, employment, housing and healthcare.
The report “shows that anti-Black racism is pervasive in all areas of life”, deplored Michaela Moua, the European Commission’s anti-racism coordinator. “We need structural solutions to tackle structural racism. [...] The EU’s anti-racism plan shows the way forward. But we will need concrete action”, she concluded, calling in particular for more data collection and effective national action plans against racism.
To see the report: https://aeur.eu/f/99g (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)