18/12/2014- The number of racist incidents reported to the Immigrant Council of Ireland increased by 51% during 2014 according to preliminary figures published today (Thursday, 18th December, 2014). The Council received 217 reports since the start of the year, an increase from 144 during 2013. Verbal abuse remains the most common form of racism accounting for 38% of reports while the workplace emerged as the location where most incidents occur at 21%. The Immigrant Council has also expressed grave concern that more than one-in-ten incidents involve physical violence.
The breakdown of figures is:
Types of racism:(Note some incidents involved a number of forms of racism)
38% – verbal harassment (115 instances)
15% – discrimination (47 instances)
10% – physical violence (29 instances)
9% – written harassment (27 instances)
9% – social exclusion (28 instances)
6% – property damage (19 instances)
5% – racist graffiti (16 instances)
5% – threats of physical violence (16 instances)
3% – other (9 instances)
Location:
21% – at work (45 instances)
17% – in home and local communities (37 instances)
13% – while accessing government or community services (29 instances)
13% – while traveling on public transport (28 instances)
10% – on the street (21 instances)
8% – in an educational institution (18 instances)
8% – on the internet (18 instances)
6% – other (12 instances)
4% – in a place of leisure (9 instances)
Victim’s ethnic background:
36% – African (78 instances)
19% – Immigrants (42 instances)
13% – Eastern European (28 instances)
8% – Indian and sub continental (17 instances)
4.5% – Asian (9 instances)
4% – Muslim (8 instance)
3.5% – White European (8 instances)
3% – White Irish (7 instances)
2% – Irish African (4 instances)
2% – Roma (4 instance)
2% – Jewish (4 instances)
1% – South American (3 instances)
1% – Other (3 instance)
1% – South East Asian (2 instances)
Victim’s age:
76% – adults (192 instances) 23% – under 18s (58 instances) 1% – unspecified (3 instance)
Victim’s gender:
56% – male (141 instances) 44% – female (112 instances)
Classes of offences:
54% – incidents (118 instances) 28% – persistent harassment (60 instances) 18% – aggravated harassment (39 incidents)
Commenting on the preliminary figures, Denise Charlton, Chief Executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland added:
“This is the second successive year that we have seen a substantial rise in incidents reported to stopracism@immigrantcouncil.ie. It is unacceptable that people are facing discrimi-nation and abuse in their place of work, while at home they must lie awake in bed at night fearing a brick through the window. It is again worth noting that 10% of the cases reported to us involve physical violence, with people being punched, kicked and assaulted. These figures will require further analysis and must form part of a national discussion on the issues involved. The Immigrant Council of Ireland is campaigning for Government to review the way incidents are recorded and for re-assurance to be given to victims that they can come forward confident that their complaints will be acted upon.
In 2015 we will be undertaking a number of initiatives. In collaboration with partners in public transport we will seek to extend an awareness campaign on buses, trams and trains in the Greater Dublin Area to other parts of the country. We will also focus on exploring opportunities to engage private transport operators in the bus and taxi sectors and we are delighted to work in partnership with the Equality Authority on this important piece of work. The year will also be marked by a new project on Islamophobia with the support of the Open Society Foundations. The fact that racism exists in Ireland has now been established beyond any doubt, it is time now to look at how the Government, Gardaí and all public bodies respond to incidents – and we look forward to being part of that process.”