Malta urged to recognise existence of racism

Malta is one of the EU countries that are not providing information on any racist violence that may be taking place, a report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia has shown.

Four other new EU states - Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus and Latvia - are falling equally short in providing information about the ever-pressing problem of racism.

In the report, the Vienna-based EUMC focused on racist violence in the EU's 15 "old" member states, though there is a brief synopsis on the new states.

It lamented that official data collection on racist violence in many countries was non-existent or ineffectual, hampering the development of effective policy responses to discrimination and racist violence against minorities.

Attacks on ethnic or religious minorities and non-nationals were not specifically recorded as racially motivated (or aggravated) offences, and therefore were not published through official crime statistics.

In an interview with The Times, EUMC head of sector data collection Thomas Schwarz urged all governments, including Malta's, to recognise the existence of racism, rather than turn a blind eye.

"Public statements might stop followers of racism before they take action," he said.

The police and other criminal justice agencies should encourage victims to report incidents of racist crime and violence.

Dr Schwarz did not wish to comment on the existing issues of racism in Malta, though he expressed surprise at the conclusions of a 2003 Eurobarometer which found that 39.7 per cent of the Maltese favour the repatriation of legal migrants.

According to the survey, among the 10 new EU states Malta was the country with the highest number of people favouring harsher anti-immigration rules.

Dr Schwarz believes the problem of irregular migration is fuelling racism in many respects. The EUMC, he said, plans to draw up a standardised method of how to best treat irregular immigrants - such a system will be steered through the European Parliament.

So how can the authorities stem or at least reduce racism in their country?

Education and campaigns are the two key words, according to Dr Schwarz, who took part in a seminar to combat racism in Malta on Thursday.

"In Malta you are a bit late in deciding on an anti-discrimination law and to set up a monitoring body, but this somewhat puts you in a privileged position. My advice would be that any governmental action should be made in conjunction with civil society and study what has happened in other countries."

Dr Schwarz said that the reason why a number of EU states were not providing information was because the stark reality would make the authorities blush.

The EU needs to know how widespread the problem of racist or xenophobic violence is. Otherwise it cannot effectively protect its cultural, religious and ethnic minorities against the violation of their fundamental rights.

Though on a positive note, many countries saw a big decrease in racism, the report shows that Roma populations (gypsies) appear to be among the biggest victims in Eastern Europe.

On the other hand, Islamophobia was on the increase in the UK, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Austria and Germany tend to focus on episodes of far-right racism while Greece, Portugal and Italy do not compile statistics.

Probed on whether the media and the authorities should ban the views of racist groups, Dr Schwarz admitted that there was no clear-cut solution and each country should devise its own solutions.

In Sweden, he said, the government goes as far as to finance a magazine which gives a voice to right-wing prisoners.

In Germany and Austria, the authorities believe racist views should be banned outright.

Asked which policy he agreed with, Dr Schwarz replied curtly: "I'm a German."