Minister urges ethnic minorities to join gardaí

Gardaí have been urged to do more to encourage racial diversity within their ranks after a report showed most victims of racist incidents don’t officially report them and the majority of those who do feel badly treated at the Garda station.

The latest figures from the Irish branch of the European Network Against Racism Ireland show that just 21% of racist incidents occurring in the first three months of this year were reported to gardaí. While that is almost double the 11% reported in the previous three months, making the report was off-putting for two thirds of victims, who said the responses they received were negative.

“These vary from the misidentification of racist incidents to gardaí actively refusing to take statements from victims of racism,” the report said.