Racist cases not reported

Most cases of racism that occur in Catalonia, almost six out of 10, are not reported, according to the annual report of SOS Racisme: Invisibles; The state of racism in Catalonia, which was released in Barcelona yesterday. The organisation documented 213 new cases of racism in Catalonia, of which 122 (57%), were not formally reported.

Director of SOS Racisme, Alba Cuevas says the low percentage of complaints is “extremely bad news” because it involves “people who have come to inform our organisation” and, therefore, have been the subject of racism but who have finally decided not to report the incident.

“The conclusion is always the same,” and that “racism is ignored”, denounced Cuevas, who criticised the “blatant lack of commitment of public institutions to face the situation,” adding that “there is a complete lack of tools of prevention and, above all, no protection for those people who decide to denounce racism.”

Three things are lacking say the experts: a lack of tools, lack of effectiveness and lack of confidence in the system. For those who wish to lay a complaint says Cuevas, they find themselves in ”scenarios which are very negative and very frustrating, that just do not respond to the situation.”

As for the 91 cases registered with SOS Racisme which were reported, 26 referring to abuse by members of the security forces (29%), 21 with discrimination between individuals (23%), 16 with discrimination in private services (17 %), nine involved hateful and abusive comments, (10%), seven involving discrimination in access to social rights (8%) and seven more in questions of employment discrimination (8%).