National race-attack statistics 'miss real story'

Statistics on racist attacks are either non-existent or ineffectual in most EU states, according to the agency set up to monitor racism in Europe.

Only six countries (France, Denmark. Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the UK) have comprehensive systems for collating statistics on racist violence. In a report to be published next week (13 April), the European monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) complain s that elsewhere in the EU attacks on ethnic or religious minorities are not specifically recorded as racially motivated offences. ?Countries with the best data collection systems and strictest legislation naturally have the highest figures for racist violence,? the EUMC but wants that it would be wrong to see them as the countries with the most racist incidents. The EU agency, based in Vienna, says there is evidence that racist violence increased last year in several member states, including France, but warns that under-recording of such incidents could ?hamper? effective policy responses.

Beate Winkler., the EUMC?s director, says: ?The EU needs to know how widespread the problem of racist or xenophobic violence is otherwise it cannot effectively protect its ethnic minorities against the violation of their fundamental rights.?

British Socialist MEP Claude Moraes, chairman of the Parliament?s anti-racism and diversity Intergroup, said: ?It is a scandal that only six countries in the EU-25 bother to calculate the number of racist attacks. This makes any statement of concern on Islamaphobia and anti-Semitic attacks ring hollow.?

The report says that laggard countries should develop ?effective and systematic? methods for recording racist violence. Police should encourage victims to report incidents. National laws on racist violence, it adds, should also recognise racist motivation as an aggravating circumstance.