Fewer discrimination reports in Netherlands last year
The number of reports of discrimination filed in the Netherlands dropped from 11,479 in 2017 to 10,087 last year, the Public Prosecutor announced in its annual report on discrimination cases on Tuesday. As in previous years, most reports involved discrimination based on origin, NU.nl reports.
The Public Prosecutor's report includes figures from anti-discrimination facilities ADVs, the police, the online discrimination reporting center MiND and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. Only the Human Rights Institute saw an increase in reports last year, from 416 to 510.
A total of 3,391 registered cases involved discrimination based on origin. In 36 percent of these cases, the victims has dark or tanned skin. 99 percent of these victims are from non-Dutch origin. A third of these incidents happened in the immediate living environment, particularly in conflicts between neighbors. Other places where discrimination based on origin occurred relatively often were on public roads and in the hospitality industry.
The police received many reports about discrimination based on sexual orientation and anti-Semitism. With sexual orientation reports, the victims were mainly homosexual men. The ADVs received fewer reports of discrimination on these two grounds.
Like in 2017, the ADVs registered more reports about discrimination on the grounds of disability last year. A total of 596 such reports were received, 14 percent of all reports registered by ADVs. The reports registered by the ADVs mainly involved discriminatory treatment, for example on the labor market. Reports received by the police were mainly about verbal abuse.
Hundreds of discrimination cases were sent through to the Public Prosecutor. This involves 395 discrimination offenses in 266 separate cases. More than half of these cases involved discrimination based on skin color, origin or ethnicity.
