Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

Today we'll be talking discrimination and how it continues to affect racial and ethnic minorities in Europe and worldwide.

We'll look at the extent of the problem, its social and economic consequences, and how the EU tries to address it.

Want to know more? Stay with us.

The UN Declaration of Human Rights says it loud and clear.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

But are they also treated equally?

Well, let me share a couple of figures that will clarify this for you.

In the 12 months prior to the conclusion of a survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

30% of respondents from Roma and North African descent experienced hate-motivated harassment, and what's even worse,

the majority didn't report it. One in ten respondents of African descent had been stopped by the police, and almost half of them felt the stop was racially motivated. And there's more. Let's

hear the director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Michael O'Flaherty.

Some 22 million people in the EU every year is subject to some form of violent crime.

We know that if you're from a minority, you have a worse experience of people in the general population,

and right across all victims, we know that

only a small proportion will ever report the crime.

And the pandemic has made things worse.

In April 2020, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reported a large increase in racist

and xenophobic incidents, especially against Asian-looking people,

but also people of Jewish origin. Here's Michael O'Flaherty. During 2020, things got even worse

in the COVID context. Thanks to the Anti-Defamation League, we are aware of hideous, shocking

calumnies perpetrated on social media against

...