Racist Crime in the EU: Increasing, Under-Reported, Destroying Lives

by Georgina Siklossy, Communication and Press Officer with ENAR

Racist crime recently made its way into the headlines with the start of the landmark trial of elected politicians of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party, including the party leader. They are accused of orchestrating a string of attacks against immigrants, leftists and gay people.

This is, however, a rare occurrence. Most racist crime incidents are kept invisible due to gaps in police and criminal justice systems – despite the fact that every year thousands of people are victims of unprovoked, often extremely violent crime, motivated simply because of the real or perceived colour of people’s skin, ethnicity or religion.

This is particularly the case in Ireland, one of the few European countries without any legislation recognising the hate or bias motivation of racist crime and taking it into consideration for the purpose of investigation, prosecution and sentencing.

Black and Asian ethnic minorities, Roma, Jews and Muslims – or those perceived as such, are those most vulnerable to racist crime, according to ENAR’s latest Shadow Report on racist crime in Europe, covering 26 European countries.

A total of 47,210 racist crimes were officially recorded in 2013 in the 26 countries covered in the report, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Most EU Member States do not properly record and report racially motivated crimes. In some countries there is no official or systematic data collection of racially motivated crimes; and in others, including, Ireland, information about the racial, ethnic or religious background of the victims is not disaggregated.

In addition, because they feel ashamed, do not trust the police, or think their testimony will not change anything, many victims often do not come forward to report racist crimes. It does not help that they are also often treated with suspicion by police and emergency workers. Another issue, highlighted in Ireland, is the fact that asylum seekers, migrants and refugees are particularly reluctant to report crimes for fear of deportation or unfair treatment because of their migration status.

The investigation and prosecution of racist crimes is also problematic. Ireland stands out in this respect as the Irish criminal code currently does not have a provision to deal with racist crime. This results in incidents not being recorded, investigated or prosecuted properly. It is at the discretion of judges to consider racist motive as a factor when determining a sentence in a case.

Under-qualification of racist crimes – i.e. treating a crime motivated by hate as a less severe crime or as a crime committed without a bias motive – takes place throughout the justice system, from police reporting to court judgements. In Ireland for instance, a man believed to have links with the small neo-Nazi Democratic Right Movement was found guilty of assault by Mullingar District Court but in spite of having shouted “Paki” at his victim, the judge said that “this does not make him a racist”.

Racist crime is one of the worst implications of racism, a threat to people’s lives, safety, health and property on the sole basis of their real or perceived race, ethnic origin or religion, and it should not go unpunished. Racist crimes are message crimes, which have detrimental consequences beyond the victims: their whole community is threatened as potential next victims, and possible escalation can put liberal and democratic societies at risk. Ireland, as all other EU Member States, must step up efforts in this area. It should ensure that existing EU legislation on combating racist crime – although imperfect – is properly implemented. Beyond this, it should strengthen the legal framework so that it recognises and clearly defines racially motivated crimes, provides for real obligations to investigate the racist motivation, and punishes these crimes more severely. We also need better training for the police and all law enforcement and criminal justice staff on racist crime, as well as adequate support offered to victims of racist crimes. Real political will is urgently needed to ensure better reporting, recording and sanctioning of racist crimes.