Germany’s leading Roma and Sinti group has documented hundreds of incidents of discrimination and racism over the past year.
Racial hatred and prejudice against the Roma and Sinti community in Germany is on the rise, according to a report published on Monday which warns of rising right-wing extremism and nationalism.
The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, the country’s main representative for the two minorities, recorded a total of 621 incidents of discrimination and racism in the past year alone.
Most were cases of prejudice and “verbal stereotyping”, according to the group.
But among those were also 11 cases of direct threats and 17 attacks.
One case of “extreme violence” happened in the western German state of Saarland earlier this year, when members of the Roma and Sinti community were insulted by people in two cars, who then shot them with a compressed air weapon.
According to the Office for Antiziganism Reports that compiled the findings for 2022, the incident left several people injured.
The total number of incidents involving Roma and Sinti people is expected to be even bigger, as many cases are likely unreported.
Roma who have fled the war in Ukraine were disproportionally affected by discrimination, the report says.
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