Racist crimes see 20% rise since 2000

IRELAND has seen a 20% increase in the level of racist crimes and violence since the millenium — the fifth biggest increase in the European Union.

However, levels of racism-fuelled acts of violence are still far lower than what is being experienced in France and Britain, according to a report entitled Racism and Xenophobia in EU Member States.

The report is the first to be published by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights since it was established last March.

It showed that racist crimes are on the increase in eight European countries. Of these, Denmark has seen the biggest increase, with incidents up 70% since 2000. This is followed by Slovakia at 45%, France and Scotland at 27% and Ireland at 20%.

The 172-page document also criticised the high levels of homelessness and unemployment of those from the eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004 compared with other sectors of Irish society.

It said this “could be traced back to worker exploitation and the false promises of employment agencies based in Poland and Ireland”. The report noted the work being done by the SIPTU trade union in informing Polish and other migrant workers about the pitfalls before they come to Ireland.

The report said certain barriers to the recruitment of ethnic minorities to the Garda have been lifted, including the removal of the requirement that applicants must speak Irish.

It read: “Consultations about related issues such as dress code, religion and integration within the Gardaí are ongoing.”

The report shows a huge increase in the incidence of anti-Semitic crimes across Europe. In France, crimes with an anti-Semitic motive have increased by 62% in the past seven years, in Britain by 15% and in Germany by 2%.

It said these increases, which were particularly evident between 2002 and 2004, “directly reflect periods of heightened conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine, which then manifests itself as anti-Semitism in mainland France”.

There has also been a rise in violence with an “extremist right-wing” or what is described as a “white-power” motive. There were 18,000 such crimes recorded in Germany last year — an increase of 12%, and 283 in France, an increase of 23% since 2000.

The document found evidence that people across Europe face discrimination simply due to their foreign-sounding names, while migrants and Roma often receive unequal treatment in housing and limitation in their right to equal access to education.

The agency’s Anastasia Crickley said: “We must guarantee equal rights for everyone — not just on paper, but also in practice.”

The agency argued, however, that the EU’s legislation on racial equality is gradually stimulating positive change.