The percentage of people of African descent who experience racial discrimination in Poland is less than half the European Union average, a new report by the bloc’s rights agency has revealed.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) released on Wednesday the results of a study conducted in several member countries in relation to racism experienced by people of African descent across the bloc.
In Germany, 76 percent of respondents claimed to have suffered racial discrimination in the past five years based on skin color, origin or religion. In Austria, this number stood at 72 percent.
However, Poland posted the lowest figure of 20 percent.
On average, across the 13 EU countries surveyed, 45 percent of respondents said they had experienced discrimination. After Poland, the lowest percentages were recorded in Sweden (25 percent) and Portugal (26 percent).
According to the FRA report, this issue has significantly escalated since the previous study in 2016 when the average percentage of respondents who reported facing discrimination was 39 percent.
FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty described this trend as “shocking” and called on EU member states to ensure that “people of African descent can exercise their rights — free from racism and discrimination.”
The FRA report, titled “Being Black in the EU: The Experience of People of African Descent,” is based on interviews with 6,752 people of African descent in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
